T II S3 



rTfTt.^ "hM ?. WTTf H 



OR 

I® llftMXEjff 

OF 

THOROUGH-BRED F0V7TS. 



Jh 1 3E 1L, O J3L 

ATICK, MASS. 



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48*? 



The generous support of the Poultry Fraternity extended to the Manual 
and the constant entreaty to specifically mate those breeds not mentioned in 
the Manual, has led me to put^in Press 

THE 



&i 



Fowls, Turkey, Geese and Duck, 

being a second volume to the Amateurs Manual, and to say that I have 
the assistance ~ f T v mr.u-vg.r.r. in t.i, fl TnrW o»,i »^~^~ -" visions, is 

enough to ensi __. 

Making a bo< ry, which 

will soon be re 



Bree 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
Cl> i. $%ppW)a. - 






T3 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



.nt 



Thorough-breds for Practical Use, 

with hints to Amateurs how to breed to a strain to secure form and color. 

The book consists in contents of my Essav. before the State Board of Ag- 
ritulture, which is in itself, a handbook for the Farmer, Poulterer and Ama- 
teur, with such added information as will be of interest. Also, the 
discussions upon the same by the board which is of practical value, and will 
be ready for distribution in Oct., 1877. Price 50 cents. 

I. K. FELCH, • 

]\atick, Mass. 




^^g^^^^^^ 




THE 



AMATEUR'S MANUAL; 



OR, 



SPECIFIC MATING 



OF 



THOROUGH-BRED FOWLS. 



BY 



KATICK, MASS. 



V 



BOSTON:^ 
BOSTON PHOTO-ELECTEOTYPE CO. 
1877. 






Copyrighted 

By I. K. FELCH, 

1877. 



PREFACE. 



In offering this, my first work upon the mating of 
thorough-bred fowls, I can but feel, while I offer no 
new mode for the consideration of those experienced 
in the business, that its teachings may help the ama- 
teur to avoid many of the disappointments and dif- 
ficulties that beset every one who works out the 
problem of breeding with no help but experience. 

Most of the writers upon the subject herein pre- 
sented have treated it in general terms, which con- 
veyed very few practical ideas to the mind of the 
inexperienced breeder. The great need of the inex- 
perienced is something of a specific nature ; and this 
has led me to present, in this little work, rules that 
can be applied in a specific manner. These rules, I 
believe, can be applied to all the breeds, as well as 
to those herein mentioned. 

Honestly made and truthfully recorded experi- 
ments are of far more value and are better understood 
by the amateur, than any theory, however forcibly 
presented. In these times of rapid improvement 

3 



4 Preface, 

and high prices for thorough-bred stock, ho needs 
all the help the older breeders can give, to shield him 
from the many mistakes in breeding. In this spirit 
I offer this, which is, in a large degree, my own ex- 
perience, hoping that the exceptions to the rules for 
mating which I offer may prove no greater in num- 
ber than has been found in other advisory works of 
this character. 

Should this work be appreciated to that degree 
which will warrant the taking up of all the other 
varieties in a like manner, in connection with other 
subjects of interest in poultry-breeding, I shall do 
so. Hoping that my efforts so far may be of some 
value to the fraternity, I am, very respectfully, 

I. K. Felch. 



THE AMATEUR'S MANUAL: 

OR, 

SPECIFIC MATING 

OF 

THOROUGH-BRED FOWLS. 



PAET FIRST. 



The word " thorough-bred," Webster defines ; Bred 
from the best blood ; completely bred ; accomplished. 

With the above before us, we are led to assert 
that we have pure blood, and absolutely thorough- 
bred fowls — other writers to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

No one denies that we have thorough-bred cattle, 
which, by judicious coupling, have been bred to a 
uniform type that is recognized at a glance. 

We have, for instance, the short-horn cattle, in 
color any shade found in red and white ; the Devon, 
which in its purity is confined to dark red ; the 
Jersey, in its varied shades found in fawn, white, and 

5 



6 Specific Mating of 

black ; and the Ayrshire, in any and all shades of 
color. Now have we not in the Light Brahma, Dark 
Brahma, Cochin, Hamburg, Houdan, Game, Spanish, 
and Dorking, fowls as deserving the title of thorough- 
bred, as any of the cattle we have named ? 

Have they not been " Bred from the best blood" — 
completely bred — and does any one deny that the 
breeding has been accomplished ? 

In the cattle there is quite a diversity in color, but 
the fowls we have named will, even in color, produce 
their progeny in one uniform type, the family like- 
ness more completely denned than is seen in the 
cattle, yet the same writers asserting we have no 
thorough-bred fowls, maintain that we have thorough- 
bred cattle. 

It is our purpose, in this treatise, to chronicle 
some part of our experience, describing, as far as we 
can, a perfect sire and dam, and presenting our views 
of mating for breeding fowls, claiming them to be 
thorough-bred. 

Practical knowledge becomes, in one sense, science, 
and should be disseminated, and no theory that does 
not stand the test of experiment be valued or promul- 
gated. 

The Rev. W. H. H. Murray truly says, "We strike 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 7 

the bottom facts that underlie all breeding, when we 
read this sentence : * Every seed should bring forth 
after its kind.'" 

" Find the highest type to perform the paternal act, 
and we can repeat the typical creation. Find two 
parents that represent the original idea in any organ- 
ism, and we can repeat the original idea." 

These and kindred expressions fire the thoughtful 
breeder to his very centre, and he searches to find 
out what constitutes a perfect sire, and what are the 
requisites of a perfect dam, that from the pair he 
may produce his ideal of perfection, combining health, 
beauty, and utility in the offspring. 

The sire should have a sound constitution, perfect 
color, and symmetry (that form of structure produced 
by the harmonious blending of perfectly formed 
parts, as described by the standard). He should be 
mild and courteous to his dames, showing no lack of 
procreative vigor ; courageous, even pugnacious, in 
the defence of his harem. 

It is not only necessary that he posess all these 
individual qualities, but he should have a record, or 
pedigree, that shows all his breeding qualities to be 
the result of ancestral blood and perfect breeding. 
Thus we have a really perfect sire. Such males, 



8 Specific Mating of 

coming from a line of like sires, invariably stamp 
their progeny in the likeness of their own person- 
ality. Experience teaches that the sire, in his line, 
has greater influence in determining the color and 
form of structure than the dams. 

The fact that chickens generally favor the grand- 
sire, makes it all important that the male line should 
not be broken, and that the sire, should be typical in 
symmetry and color. 

Before speaking of the color qualification, and its 
influence in mating, we will submit the following, 
proved by several experiments, that our deductions 
may be better understood. 

It is asserted by pigeon fanciers, that if a pigeon, 
white in plumage, beak, and toe-nails (it matters not 
from what colored ancestors it may have been bred) , 
will, if it breed at all, breed true to white. An 
Albino Spanish fowl, if pure white in plumage, beak, 
and legs, will ever after breed true to white. 

We produced in 1862, a pair of white sports from 
Golden Spangled Hamburgs. The male had bluish- 
white toes ; the progeny came one third Golden 
Spangled in color, while a cockerel from the pair, 
in all respects white, bred to his dam and to his sis- 
ters, produced all white chicks. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 9 

Generally all sports, so called, are white in color, 
or we think a better expression is, that they are void 
of color. 

By causes which cannot be explained, the func- 
tion of color fails to furnish its quota to the chicken's 
organism, therefore the chickens must be considered 
a new type, and lost to the breed, for they cannot be 
expected to transmit a color which they never in- 
herited. 

We admire a pure white back and undercolor in a 
Light Brahma pullet, with a clearly defined stripe 
in the hackle. But if successive matings of sire and 
dam, both being white in undercolor, are indulged in, 
the result will be faded, and eventually white birds. 
A plumage like that of the Light Brahma, made up 
of white and black, cannot be exempt from the shad- 
ings of the one color into the other with which it is 
associated ; and in this breed, the standard wisely 
acknowledges both white and bluish undercolor, and 
gives no preference to either shade in adjudicating 
for premiums. 

This position is a just one, and judges should not 
deviate from it, for without this dark undercolor in 
the sire we cannot sustain the breed. 

It matters not what our likes or dislikes are, or 



10 Specific Mating of 

may be, nor how we may breed for our own amuse- 
ment ; yet, in all public expressions, we should be 
careful to present each breed in its true light, and all 
truthfully-recorded experiments become of much value 
in counteracting whatever false ideas may appear in 
print from time to time. 

Experience teaches us that the whole tendency of 
breeding is to breed lighter in color. We have only 
to call to mind the Light Brahmas of the past, to see 
how all of the strains have grown lighter in color. 
We all know that the original birds were dark in 
undercolor, and that light specimens, then, were the 
exception. We know, also, that a flock colonized 
and left to themselves, grow lighter in color, and 
finally become nearly or quite white. 

In view of these facts, we say : all males of faded 
light color in plumage should be killed for poultry. 
In no case should they be used as breeders, for they 
are never good producers of males, and, although they 
may for a season beget good females, these in their 
turn will revert in their breeding to their faulty sires. 

Why try to utilize these males, and expect them to 
perform a work that is impossible. They cannot be 
expected to produce color when they utterly fail in 
that quality. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 11 

Yet, in the face of all this experience, we see 
breeders using, year after year, white-necked Light 
Brahma, faded light-eolored Plymouth-Rock, Light 
Buff Cochin, splashed-breasted, bronze-thighed Par- 
tridge Cochin sires, expecting, by the aid of counter- 
acting influences in the dams, to reach perfection in 
color. 

Should all the breeders of Plymouth Rocks, now in 
the infancy of the breed, step out boldly, using none 
but perfect-colored sires, or those darker in color, 
they would v perfect the color of their breed, which 
they will never do by mating extremes, as is now the 
universal rule. 

Why do these breeders forget these facts, "That 
every seed should bring forth after its kind ; " that 
the sire, in his line, has the greatest influence in de- 
termining the color of the offspring, and that there is 
a loss in color by breeding ? 

Waste is written on every thing. We are com- 
pelled to establish a sinking fund in all operations in 
life ; life itself working on that plan. 

In all penciled or barred plumage, we find the 
ground-color to be the lighter in shade ; and, as 
breeding-strength fails (as it may by severe in-and- 
in breeding, producing debility or a weakened con- 



12 Specific Mating of 

stitution) we find the progeny reverting to this lighter 
or ground-color. Those of white losing their brill- 
iancy of color, black becoming mixed with white ; 
Light Brahmas growing pale, and even white, in the 
neck, tail and wings, and finally pure white ; Bull' 
Cochins to pale buff, white in flights and tail ; Part- 
ridge Cochins to clay-colored breasts, not penciled, 
and males buff-mottled in breast ; the Golden- 
Spangled Cock, to reddish-brown breasts, with white 
appearing along the lower line of the body ; there- 
fore, good color not only requires the best mating of 
blood, but is also dependent upon the health of the 
parent-birds while breeding. 

Nine-tenths of all the blunders, in mating for 
breeding, occur in 

COLOR, 

and a corresponding number of all the breeders, in 
mating their stock, fail to consider that color is the 
especial work of the sire. 

To be sure, good care and generous feed, help 
most materially ; for feathers, like grass, grow most 
luxuriantly under favorable circumstances. Poor 
feed, poor plumage. It starves alike with the body. 
This can well be remembered by those who expect 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 13 

they have done their whole duty, when they buy 
nice stock and expect it to produce premium chickens. 

The color of the hackle of a sire is to be con- 
sidered, especially as it is to influence and control the 
hackles of his sons, for the hackle is purely male 
plumage, and the beauty of his sex. While the 
color of his neck, before putting on this garb, will 
determine his breeding-strength in the color of his 
pullets. A male that grows up black in neck, to be 
replaced or covered by a white hackle, having a 
yellow beak, void of a black stripe, will, as a rule, 
beget pullets dark and many quite black and 
smutty in the neck, and male chicks white in the 
hackle, like himself; while a male with dark beak, 
very dark neck and back, as he becomes a cockerel, 
having a royal rich black striped hackle, will gen- 
erally beget both sexes too dark, if anything like 
standard females are mated to him. But such males 
are very valuable in restoring the progeny of hens 
that are light in color of neck, wings and tails ; thus 
utilizing hens that must otherwise go to the block. 

The reader may ask why recommend the mating of 
very dark sires to light females, and condemn mat- 
ings made "vice versa." 



14 Specific Mating of 

In answer, we will say : — 

1. — The tendency is always to breed lighter in 
color, and the sire fails in this respect. 

2. — The sire, in his line, has the greatest control 
of the color of the offspring. 

3. — Chickens favor more strongly the grandsire. 

4. — A white-necked sire will beget smutty-necked 
females, which, in turn, revert to their pale sire, and 
if a like sire be mated to the rule of all white under- 
color, the same having been the breeding of the fe- 
males, they will produce progeny all pale and faulty 
in color. 

Experience teaches that cockerels with dark fine 
hackles, bluish undercolor, and black wing-flights and 
tail, are the progeny of perfect or dark-plumaged sires. 
So universally true is this, that it may be accepted as 
a rule. 

Our strongest argument in favor of the dark sire 
and rejection of the pale one is, that experience says 
it is best, and that is our law. 

The male of all breeds whose plumage is made up 
of black and white, or is parti-colored, owing to their 
profusion of hackle and tail, compared with the 
females of their breed, appear much lighter in color ; 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 15 

consequently they are darker in breeding functions 
than they appear ; and the first point an experienced 
breeder considers, in Penciled and Spangled Ham- 
burgs and Plymouth Rocks, is the breast, bars of the 
wings, and color of beak, before considering the gen- 
eral surface color, knowing that if dark or light in 
these points, that such will be the breeding and in- 
fluence on the progeny. 

Many find fault with the standard, saying, that to 
mate specimens by it is to make a failure in breed- 
ing. 

The fault is not so much in the standard as in our 
failure to consider the difference in the plumage of 
the sexes, when we apply the standard. 

Size in the sire is of little importance, if he be fully 
up to the medium weight of his race. An over- 
grown sire is useless as a breeder. The one just 
above the average, vigorous and healthy, will beget 
one hundred chicks weighing more pounds than will 
the overgrown male of the same brood. 

Size and weight should be considered in the light 
of the general average . The best sire is the one that 
shows the least difference in the weight of the indi- 
viduals of his progeny. 



16 Specific Mating of 

In the small breeds we may with safety choose our 
sires above the average weight, for it is a singular 
fact, that in the largest specimens of the Asiatics and 
the smallest specimens of the smaller breeds will be 
found the most faulty birds. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 17 



THE BAM. 



Constitution, prolific-laying, size, and color$ are im- 
portant, and are to be preferred in the order named. 
In addition to this, a good record of blood and egg- 
productive merit, in her ancestry, are to be con- 
sidered in selecting dams for any breed. 

A sound constitution and perfect health while breed- 
ing, has much to do with producing prolific-laying 
stock ; also with the lustre and brilliancy of self- 
colors. 

The dam produces the material for the chicken- 
structure ; the sire the life of that structure. 

The egg is to the chicken what the endosperm is to 
plant life — a store-house containing the requisites to 
produce a perfect chicken-structure. The life-germ 
that is to absorb all this, being thereby built up 
into independent life, is imparted by the sire. 

Unlike the animal kingdom, the hen performs her 
work as independently and completely without the 
male, as by copulation with him. 

The egg-passage, running from the egg sac to the 
vent, is a receptacle, a work house, in which the se- 



18 Specific Mating of 

cretions of both dam and sire are made up into pack 
ages called eggs. In this work-room impregnatioi 
takes place. The ova, when grown to a certain size 
burst their sacks and are expelled into this oviduct 
there to receive the spermatozoa of the male, and in 
their passage through become encased in the albu- 
men, the lining aud shell in turn, and expelled at the 
vent, perfect eggs. 

There are in this passage, while a hen is in a healthy 
laying condition, from four to six eggs in their dif- 
ferent stages of development ; the last two nearest 
the vent being beyond the influence of the male, if 
the hen has not been previously exposed. 

All the secretions deposited in the egg-passage, 
must find an escape at the vent, for nothing goes 
back from it into the dam's organism by absorption, 
as is asserted by some writers. 

We have seen cases where, by means of a cartilagi- 
nous circle about the vent, fowls have been prevented 
from laying their eggs, and in such cases the eggs in 
the egg-passage will form one over the other, till 
death is caused by inward pressure ; and we have be- 
fore now taken from the carcass a mass as large as a 
six-pound cannon-shot, cooked solid by fever heat. 
We have taken from the egg-passage of a turkey, 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 19 

five eggs, completely formed and shelled, completely 
cooked by inflamation. 

The following experiments seem to prove that the 
spermatozoa will live doing its work of impregnation, 
in this egg-passage, only about ten days, and we may 
say that the dam is pregnant for that length of time. 

We placed a hen that had hatched and reared a 
brood of chicks, without exposure, with a cock for 
three hours, then isolated her in a coop by herself. 
The first two eggs she laid in the next forty eight 
hours, were not fertile ; eight of the nine laid in the 
ten days thereafter were fertile. Those laid after 
that time were not fertile. 

We placed a hen by herself that had been exposed 
while rearing her brood, and seven out of the eight 
eggs laid during the ten days afterwards were fertile, 
but all eggs laid after that time were not. 

We took a hen that had just finished her litter, 
wanting to incubate, and exposed her to the male for 
three days, then cooped her by herself. None of her 
eggs were fertile. In this case we take it for granted 
the incubating fever had not abated so as to admit of 
an effective copulation. 

These experiments, which we can vouch for, seem 
to indicate that if females are cooped ten days before 



20 Specific Mating of 

saving the eggs, that it will protect the breeder in the 
purity of the blood of the chickens ; but, as some 
believe that the whole litter of eggs are effected, it is 
the better plan, in changing hens from one male to 
another, to do it at the close of a litter of eggs : but 
we are satisfied that after the^fiSf egg, after the 
change is made, the chicks would in nineteen cases 
in twenty be the progeny of the associate sire. 

We believe the longer the spermatozoa remains in 
the egg-passage, without being appropriated, the 
more sluggish it becomes, and that the fresh semen, 
being more active in its animalcule life, secures the 
impregnation of the eggs. This is speculation, but, 
nevertheless, in accordance with our experience. 

If examined by the microscope, there will be found 
no organic difference in the germ found in the yolk 
of the egg, and that of the freshly-ejected sperma- 
tozoa, both resembling a polywog, and there is no 
chance, as the author of "Secrets in Fowl-Breeding" 
asserts, for the dam to be contaminated by a chance- 
copulation with a male not of her breed. 

There can be no grounds for belief, that a dam cop- 
ulating with a sire of a different breed has lost her 
purity of blood, and that we can never afterwards 
breed thorough-bred stock from her. We do not 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 21 

wonder, if he believes this, that he asserts, in the 
commencement of his work, that we have no abso- 
lutely thorough-bred fowls. 

There can be no contamination of the blood or 
breeding of the dam from this cause, unless it can be 
proved that there is a union of arterial circulation 
between the fetus or chick and the dam. This is be- 
yond proof, for there is no circulation in the egg till 
incubation takes place, and this is carried on inde- 
pendent of the dam, and may be a thousand miles 
away. Again, we have cases on record where an egg 
laid thirty-three hours after copulation hatched. It 
is clearly shown that the tivo eggs nearest to the 
vent are generally past impregnation ; but, in this 
case, the second one was reached, and, owing to the 
time it takes to develop an egg, the vital germ must 
have been taken into the egg at once, which pre- 
cludes altogether the idea that the dam becomes in- 
jured in her blood by absorption through the act 
of copulation out of her breed. 

We are surprised to see men foreshadowing this 
belief in their advertisements, for surely breeders of 
experience cannot believe it, and must look upon it 
as advancing a false theory, which does the amateur 
no good. 



22 Specific Mating of 

Size in the dam is all-important if great weight in 
the progeny is the disideratum ; for, as we have 
shown, the dam furnishes the structure, and must 
thereby control the size to a much greater extent 
than the sire. 

Secure dams of good average size. If they are to 
be used to vitalize some other strain, it is necessary 
that they be coarse in structure, and large in bone, 
for these qualities become toned down by in-breeding. 
They should also be dark in plumage to counteract 
the loss of color in breeding. In support of the 
above, we will say that we mated two large hens to a 
cockerel weighing less than nine pounds, and which, 
as a cock, did not reach twelve pounds till three 
years old, and then only when exceedingly fat. Not 
one of his progeny, at eight months old, Aveighed less 
than nine pounds, and many of them twelve and one 
half pounds. Again, we mated a cock often and one 
half pounds to ten-pound hens, and the result was, at 
ten months old the entire male progeny was larger 
than the sire, many of the cockerels weighing twelve 
and one half pounds before twelve months old. Yet, 
for all this, we would caution breeders not to go to 
extremes in this direction. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 23 

The larger the bone and structure, the longer it 
will take to mature the specimen. 

The smaller the bone and offal, in comparison to 
weight, the quicker will they mature. As a rule such 
chickens are the most profitable as poultry, giving 
better returns for food consumed. They lay earlier 
in life, and such are always the most prolific layers 
through life. 

These early-maturing, compact close feathered 
birds, generally win the early exhibitions ; while 
those of larger bone and more fluffy plumage, requir- 
ing more time to mature them, are more successful 
in the show-pen in the winter months. 

Both these types the breeder of Asiatics are com- 
pelled to breed, for both have their admirers. The 
poulterer and those of a practical turn of mind pre- 
ferring the former, and many of the fanciers the 
latter. 

Our own idea, and we believe the true position, is 
to take the happy medium, and advance in size no 
faster than we can secure with it the full merit of 
egg-production and symmetry. 



Specific Mating of 



BREAST AND BODY. 



These are of more importance, especially in the 
form of structure, for practical use, and in the exhi- 
bition-pen, than many at first conceive. 

A specimen, perfect in these respects, has an in- 
creased chance to win over one failing in these 
points, for a failure of two points in form of breast 
and body, will affect the symmetry of the specimen 
three points more, making in the aggregate five 
points ; while to fail even four points in the hackle 
(and such a specimen is seldom exhibited, since it 
has no associate influence) , is no worse for the speci- 
men than two points as described above — a hint 
breeders may well heed in selecting their breeding- 
stock or specimens for exhibition. 

How few specimens we see that fill literally the 
requirements of the standard, "breast full, broad, 
round, carried well forward, body broad and deep, 
which, to secure this shape in breast, must be 
rounded at the side, giving the round side-sweep 
which is admired wherever seen. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 25 

All who saw the Light Brahma Cock Leo, 2776, 
exhibited at Lowell by Damon & Marshall, or the 
Dark Brahma Cockerel exhibited at Boston* by Mr. 
Waterhouse, in the winter of 1876-77 will appre- 
ciate this merit. 

This formation gives better form and carriage of 
wings, finer symmetry and more grace of carriage; 
yet we see many birds used by breeders failing in 
all this, and their place usurped by others whose only 
excellence is a good neck-hackle. — A word to the 
wise is sufficient. 



26 /Specific Mating of 



MATING OF THE SEXES. 



T w relation to color in the breeds, we consider 
first the Light Brahmas, for it is with this breed we 
have worked out most of our experience, and it 
oomcs easier for us to employ it in illustration; 
but in all other breeds, so far as they have been as 
well established in blood, and bred upon the same 
plan or rule, we find the same results. 

We can give no rule to be applied to all breeds 
unless all breeders have established the rule of breed- 
ing one line of- sires, preserving it unbroken, and 
breeding all new blood introduced back to sires of 
the strain, basing all on the law of in-breeding. We 
expect some may mate by our advice as they under- 
stand it, and fail ; but it will not be the fault of the 
rule, but the fault of the previous breeding of the 
stock. 

Before going further we will explain what we term 
M The Apron.," It is the feathers that grow from the 
shoulder joints along the arm of the wing and cover 
the back entirely at the neck, spreading laterally 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 27 

towards the tail, helping to form the flatness of the 
back between the shoulders, and are covered by the 
hackle of the bird when standing erect. In Light 
Brahmas it is either black, black and white, or white; 
and either must be tolerated in the breed. The wing 
and neck are made up of black and white, and m*s 
apron is the connecting link of these two sectiuus ; 
and where a pure white apron is found, generally the 
specimen fails in color of wing or is short in the 
hackle-feathers ; yet for air this, some judges will cut 
a color other than white in this locality ; still we pre- 
fer to consider it in the same spirit as we do ;he 
undercolor of the back, unless the apron has more 
than one half black feathers, then cut as a defect. 
With this explanation we would mate as follows . - 



2% Specific Mating of 



LIGHT BRAHMAS. 



Mating No. 1. — Cockerel in form and color as de- 
scribed by the Standard, weighing from ten and 
one half to eleven and one quarter pounds, with 
stripe in hackle-feathers, the black commencing 
well up and running in a narrow clear black 
stripe to the point, dark beak, apron and under- 
color and deep bay eyes. 

liens weighing from nine to ten pounds ; in 
form and color as described by the Standard, 
and white in apron and undercolor, with bay 
eyes. 

This I think none will deny is mating by the Stand- 
ard, and we call it the "no plus ultra" of all Light 
Brahinas for the male line of one's strain. 

Mattxo No. 2. — Cocks with wide black stripe in 
hackle and light stripes discernible in saddle 
n^-ir the tail, white in apron and undercolor, 
medium dark beak, and bay eyes, in other re- 



Tlwrough-bred Fowls. 29 

spccts as described by Standard, weighing from 
eleven and one half to twelve and one half 
pounds. 

Pullets in form and color as described by the 
Standard, being dark in the apron and bluish at 
shoulder, shading to white towards the tan in 
the undercolor, selecting them well up in size. 
Such a mating will produce females that should 
please all. This and the mating No. 1 we term 
perfect in all respects. 

Mating No. 3. — Mate males with hackles tnat have 
a good fair black stripe, but edge of feathers 
free from any smoky tinge, white undercolor and 
apron, wing flights about one half black, lesser 
coverlets of tail white, coverlets white laced. 

To females that have neck nearly black or 
what is called smutty, the white edge of feather 
smoky edged or entirely wanting, with black 
apron and undercolor. Of course in all these 
matings for color, the form of structure is taken 
for granted to be as near the Standard as we 
can find it ; the males to be of standard weight 
and the females well up to or beyond tne weight 
laid down for perfection. 



30 Specific Mating of 

Mating No. 4. — Males as described in Nos. 1 <fc 2. 
To females that are somewhat lighter in color 
than described in the Standard, also to females 
that run a trifle darker than the Standard, of 
course regulating so that the apron and under- 
color shall be the reverse in the sexes. 

Mating No. 5. — Males very dark in hackle, even 
smoky edged, beak very dark in stripe, apron 
and undercolor very dark, even showing in web 
of feather, wings as dark as possible, tail black, 
and eyes a deep bay. (The bay eye is the 
strongest sighted and the strongest breeder.) 

Females with extremely light necks, wings, 
apron, undercolor, and tail, and light or pearl 
eyes — in fact iu and of themselves worthless, 
only as they possess good blood, being unfortu- 
nate in individual appearance — what the writer 
terms scrubs. 

This mating utilizes many birds that would other- 
wise go to the block. Such mating of these ex- 
tremes in color many times produce line chickens. 
A breeder carried away by in-and-in breeding, over- 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 31 

steps the bounds of reason, and this gre^t want of 
color is the result. His birds being well bred, the 
restoration of color is easily accomplished. Some 
may say we should not give countenance to such mat- 
ing. To such we would say, Would you send to the 
butcher a white princess short-horn heifer, or would 
you breed her to a red bull and make her valuable ? 
Her pedigree, which shows her blood to be very fine, 
is the guaranty that if judiciously mated she will 
produce good results, and for this last mating we will 
say that with the exception of five to seven per cent, 
of the chicks, they will most likely be of as good an 
average as mating No. 3. 

All the male progeny of this mating No. 5 that does 
not come well up to the Standard should be killed for 
poultry ; for it is a questionable policy to use the 
males as stock-birds (and especially if they are to fill 
the place as one of your line of sires) that comes 
from this extreme mating. All faded, white-hackled 
males should be killed. 

Let these rules of mating Light Brahmas, also the 
rule of breeding in line of sires, be rigidly observed, 
taking into the breeding-stock no more than one 
fourth of blood other than the strain, and it will mat- 



42 Specific Mating of 

tcr not whether it be Felch, Autocrat, or English, the 
result canuot fail to be good with the necessary dif- 
ference in the relationships of the different matings 
described. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 33 



DARK BRAHMAS. 



To make a rule and have it apply to all breeds, it is 
necessary that the circumstances be the same in each 
case, and when we offer a rule for mating Dark 
Brahmas upon principles derived from experiments 
wrought out with the light variety, we expect the 
same results, if the same rule of breeding, viz : ad- 
hering to a line of male ancestrj 7 , has been observed. 
We say male line, for it is that line which has the 
greatest influence, as we have shown. 

There is no breed that has proved so disastrous in 
the hands of- amateurs as the Dark Brahma, and with 
which we have to be so cautious when we introduce 
new blood., The peculiar color and penciling of the 
plumage is such that a radical change of blood always 
deranges it, and therefore the necessity of a slow 
process of feeding the blood. While a three-fourths 
bred Light Brahma would be nearly perfect, the dark 
variety would not carry more than an eighth of blood 
out of the family, and retain the family-characteristics 
of penciling and shade. 



34 Sjwcijic Mating of 

This makes it a necessity to first establish family 
strains of blood, and then adhere closely to an un- 
broken line of sires, breeding back to that line of 
sires whenever new blood is introduced. There is no 
breed that demonstrates this necessity more clearly. 
For a striking example of it, we have only to call to 
mind the King of 1877, the cockerel "Agamem- 
non " bred by Chas. A. Sweet, of Buffalo, X. Y., 
that won 1st and special at the International Exhibi- 
tion held at Buffalo, X. Y., in February, 1877. This 
bird came from an unbroken line of sires for four 
generations from an imported bird, and from a fe- 
male line bred back strongly to the same line of 
sires. 

AVhcn the breeders of this variety will recognize 
this necessity, and each of the different importations 
be preserved as near as possible in the family purity 
of blood, then will they be more valuable to the trade, 
as we will show in speaking of the strains of Light 
Brahmas. Then, also, can we apply the following 
rules with almost as certain results as cau be obtained 
with other breeds. 

AVcre we to make a speciality of the breed, wo 
would select the best cockerel we could find, and a 
large-boned pullet with coarsely penciled plumage, 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 



each from different families of blood, and breed 
them and their progeny for four years, as follows : 



Cockl 


c__ 


G8 
C5 ^ 




G9 


^G13 




\ G2R 




^C 


G10 


C^-^ 


Group 1 


V^^ 




c\ 


'GU 






G6t5C 


Bam 1 


"HI 


G? 


^p 


Gl2 


^P \ 












G16 



Mating the first year to produce group 1 ; the sec- 
ond year a pullet from group 1 to cockerel No. 1 ; 
a cockerel -the exact typo of his sire to hen No. 1 ; 
a cockerel like the sire to the pullet approaching tho 
nearest to perfection, breeding them in and in ; pro- 
ducing in their turn groups 2, 3, and 4, and the 
third year mating as indicated by the lines, produc- 
ing groups Nos, 5, G, and 7. In all the young stock 
using no males that were not the type of the sire, nor 
pullets other than the desired t}'pe in penciling of 
feathers and form of structure. In this way produc- 
ing three families alike in type and different in blood, 



36 Specific Mating of 

yet made of the same cross. This trouble will put 
any breeder on a firm footing, and ever afterwards if 
he uses none but females in the introduction of new 
blood, and receives group 7 in the light of new 
blood, disposing of the cockerels, putting in the new 
hen 8, breeding as indicated by the lines, disposing 
of all cockerels as scrubs or poultry that have not 
more than fifty per cent, of the blood of the strain, 
he will need have no fear that his birds will not breed 
well and his customers be pleased. 

We can recommend the following matings with a 
feeling of certainty as to grand results 

Mating No. 1. — Hens that are standard, which were 
nearly perfect, steel-grey pullets in their first 
year mated to a cockerel, metallic -black in 
breast and thighs, medium dark beak, hackle 
and saddle, broad in the black stripe and de- 
cided in shade. This mating should be made in 
producing the male line. 

Mating No. 2. — Hens that were fine as pullets but 
have become bronze-hued as fowls mated to 
a cockerel with a black breast, evenly dotted 
with minute white spots, black thighs, hackle 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 37 

and saddle well striped, and a medium dark 
beak. 

Mating No. 3. — To pullets that are as near the 
standard as possible, ^having closely -penciled 
throats, mate a cock black in breast and thighs, 
which as a cockerel had a breast spotted, as de- 
scribed in No. 2. This will produce the best 
females. 

Mating No. 4. — To pullets good in other respects 
but light in color of breast, mate cocks black in 
breast and thighs, with broad black stripe in 
hackle and saddle, with very dark beak ; said 
cock having been black-breasted when a chick. 

Mating No. 5. — To hens good in color which as 
pullets were not penciled in breast, mate cock- 
erels dark in all respects, even in beak, stripe of 
hackle, breast, and thighs ; the white, even, so 
charged as to be smoky-laced. This is in keep- 
ing with mating No. 5, of Light Brahmas. 

Nos. 1 and 3 are the "ne plus ultra" of all the 
breeds. 



38 Specific Mating of 

In .nil these Huntings we should prefer long-bodied 
hens, but not so long as to narrow sit the saddle. 
The cock should have sufficient length of back to pre- 
serve the true Brahma type. The race is too fast 
approaching the Cochin shape, an evil I hope the 
breeders will strive to remedy, for in doing so they 
will have less trouble in keeping up the breed to 
standard weight. This point should be kept in mind 
when introducing new blood, and large, coarse speci- 
mens should be chosen, for they tone down wonder- 
fully by in-breeding. 

If a strain is disposed to breed extremely light in 
color, then no cockerels with spotted breasts should 
be used even in mating No. 2 ; but should they be 
predisposed to the dark extreme, cocks with spotted 
breasts should be used in mating No. 1, and cocks 
slightly mottled in their breasts, in mating No. 3. 

All really light -colored, stripcless -hackled and 
saddled cockerels should be killed, for their use will, 
as a rule, produce bad results. All pale, non-pen- 
ciled-brcastcd pullets should be used as incubators 
the first year, and all that do not ripen into good 
color and have penciled breasts, as hens, should be 
used as poultry. The others should be mated as in 
mating No. 5. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 39 

TTo cannot leave the breed without a word to such 
breeders as Mr. Sweet and Mr. Mansfield, who wo 
learn have devoted much thought to their breeding, 
and who are, in a measure, breeding upon the plan 
herein laid down ; also, to Mr. Perry, who has the 
" Wright Brahmas," expressing a hope that they will 
preserve their strains as pure in family blood as pos- 
sible, and that in connection with the breeding of 
their stock they will use a public record for the pres- 
ervation of the history of their respective strains, 
cither the " World's Pedigree Book " or the " Ameri- 
can Poultry Association's Register." 

Buyers of this breed are seeing this necessity, and 
we believe it will pay for the trouble. The history 
of this breed has been much like that of the first ten 
years of the Light Brahmas. The fact that tho 
majority of the breeders believe frequent crosses nec- 
essary, and the complication of color has been the 
means of causing many to abandon the breed. TVe 
believe the breed can be made a popular one if the 
rules herein laid down are followed. 



40 Specific, Mating of 



PARTRIDGE COCHINS. 



Mating No. 1. — Cockerel weighing ten to eleven 
pounds, hackle and saddle rich bay, the black in 
the same being metallic greenish-black and broad 
in the stripe, metallic-black breast and thighs, 
fluff showing a bronze tinge, indicative of rich 
brown blood. 

Hens as described in w The Standard." This 
mating is the best that can be made for the 
male progeny. 

Mating No. 2. — Cock weighing eleven to twelve 
pounds, and of the same color as described for 
cockerel in mating No. 1. 

Pullets large in size, and in color reddish- 
brown ground penciled with a deep brown, with 
standard neck and tail. This mating will pro- 
duce finer females than males. 

Mating No. 3. — Males showing bronze-black tips 




p\p« ' 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 4.1 

to breast feathers, even slight mottlings of bay 
color, with thighs slightly bronzed, and a narrow 
black stripe in the hackle and saddle. 

Females in plumage brown, penciled with 
black. Such faulty hens, by this mating, help to 
produce many good males. 

Matixg No. 4. — Males very dark in beak, hackle, 
saddle, breast and thighs, wings and tail. Fe- 
males favoring the light extreme, being lightly 
penciled in breast, with hackle in which the pen- 
ciling of brown mottles the black stripe. This 
mating, like the dark-sire mating No. 5, in the 
Light Brahmas, often produces fine chicks. 

All pale-hackled, splashed-breasted and bronze- 
thighed males should be killed, and in subsequent 
matings so mate that one of the sex shall come from 
either mating No. 1 or No. 2. Females with clay or 
non-penciled breasts, or those with leaden-grey and 
black mixed in the plumage, should never be used as 
breeders. 

It is a sad sight to see so many specimens fail in 
color. Many are better described as brown penciled 
with black, and buff penciled with brown. The 



42 Specific Mating of 

Standard color, "rich brown penciled with a darker 
brown," should be better appreciated ; so popular has 
the reddish buff penciled with dark brown become, 
that the judge who literally follows the Standard finds 
many to condemn his judgment. 

This breed is as difficult to handle as the Dark 
Brahmas, and equal care in introducing new blood 
should be exercised. g 

The breed requires close breeding to maintain the 
fine outlines of penciling, and we think if all the 
statistics could be procured it would be proved that 
more prize-winners have come from the breeding in 
line as we know to be the case in other breeds. 
This is the case of the Partridge Cochin cockerel 
winning the Bristol, Conn., exhibition in 1876, and 
belonging to R. B. Lewis of Watertown, Conn. 
The cockerel came in a direct line and in the fourth 
generation from the imported bird Emperor, 764, 
through Ned Buntline 786, and a son of Ned 
Buntline. 



Tliorough-bred Fowls. 



43 



THE HOUDAN. 




HOUDANS, 



The Houdans in France and England rank very much 
as the Plymouth Rocks do in America, furnishing ex- 
cellent poultry in summer and early fall, and withal 
being very good layers, filling the middle ground be- 
tween the small and large fowls- of the lands. The 
first importations of these fowls proved very unsatis- 
factory ; those coming from France being much 



44 Specific Mating of 

smaller than those imported from English breeders, 
the stoek having improved in size under their super- 
vision. Since the introduction of Iloudans into 
America the breed has greatly improved, and we now 
have yards in America where they are seen in per- 
fection. Notable arc those of Mr. II. A. Grant, of 
Tarrytown, N. Y., and Mr. E. C. Aldrich, of Ilydo 
Park, Mass. In conversation with the latter gentle- 
man we learned that his first male, a cockerel from 
birds imported from France, weighed only five and 
one half pounds ; but with only two introductions of 
blood from English importations he has so improved 
his Hock that some of his breeding males weigh eight 
and three fourths pounds, — an improvement but few 
breeds can show. They are also less subject to roup 
than formerly, home-bred birds being equally as hardy 
as other breeds except the Asiatics. 

The breed, made up as it is of plumage in feather 
white and black, makes them more subject to loss in 
color by age, than most parti-colored breeds ; and a 
pullet only one fourth white will gencralh' appear 
quite evenly divided in the two colors as a hen ; while 
a cockerel quite black oftentimes as a cock, appears 
in the regulation uniform, and at three or four years 
old looks tolerably white on the lawn. 



TJiorougli-bred Fowls. 45 

Therefore, in mating, the breeder has to allow not 
only for loss in color for breeding, but also for the 
loss by age, and must commence with the }'oung stock 
much darker in one of the sexes than he desires ; and 
in his purchases of new blood, ought to select dark 
specimens. 

The shape of the crest is of far more importance in 
the cock than the size of it ; while in the hen, the 
size of the crest should take the precedent. The 
points most desired arc : symmetry, form of the sec- 
tions, and color in the males, and size, health, size of 
crest, and fullness of beard in the females. With 
this be sure to have health and egg-productive merit. 
Therefore, we recommend mating for the best results 
in the male progeny. 

Mating Xo. 1. — Cockerels a little more than one 
fourth white, small in comb, finely formed crest, 
and full in beard ; in other respects Standard. 

Hens of good average size that have ripened 
into Standard color, from pullets that were quito 
dark in plumage, large crests, full beard, and 
small combs. 

Mating Xo. 2. — Cock that has ripened into Standard 
color from a cockerel, like Xo. 1. 



46 Specific Mating of v. 

Pullets somewhat darker than Standard color, 
in form of crest, legs, and toes, as described in 
Standard. Such a pen will breed good birds of 
both sexes. 

Mating No. 3. — Males evenly broken in white and 
black plumage. 

Females very dark in plumage. If this mating 
be kept up there will soon be less light-plumage d 
birds, and the plumage will be more uniform 
than it would if light-colored sires were used. 

Mating No. 4. — Male nearly black, with beak and 
legs dark-colored. 

Pullets showing three fifths or more white in 
plumage. In this way all the stock can be util- 
ized, except extremely light-colored cockerels 
of the breed, which should be killed ; for their 
use will in a few years bleach out the flock to a 
greater extent than is desirable. 

We see no reason why this breed cannot be kept 
up to Standard color ; and surely its practical worth 
has been very much improved. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 47 

What a few have done in size, the many ought to 
be able to do ; but in makiug weight, do not lose 
sight of the egg-productive merit, for that once im- 
paired would be a severe blow to the breed. 



48 



Specific Mating of 



PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 




PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 



This breed, in its different families, is cross-bred in 
foundation blood, with top crosses of the Dominique 
to secure the color. To notice some of- the modes 
which have produced, these beautiful birds, wo cite : — 



1. — Dlack Spanish on Y/liite Cochin, top crossed, with 
Dominique. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 49 

2. — Black Spanish on Gray Dorkings, top crossed 

with Dominique. 

3. — Dominique on Buff-Cochin hens, reaching the 

result through the strong breeding-color quality 
of the Dominique, by years of breeding. 

4. — White Birmingham on the Black Java, top 

crossed with Dominique. 

5. — White Birmingham on the Black Java, and tho 

progeny bred together, the progeny coming white 
and black, and Dominique. These Dominique- 
colored birds, bred with the males produced by 
mating No. 4, produced the best and surest 
breeders for color of plumage and legs ; and 
were known by many as the Essex Strain, being 
the same in foundation blood as seen in the so- 
called Mark Pitman birds, of 1872-3. 

Thus we see that they are the result of mating thor- 
ough-breds so strong in color-pigment as to produce 
new types, neither being strong enough to control the 
color. Thus has the color of this breed been es- 
tablished, and the fact that light and dark colors 
have been mated to produce the breed, has caused 
breeders of this variety to adopt the theory, that the 



50 Specific Mating of 

color must be maintained by mating the birds bv the 
same rule. 

It should be remembered that this breed is in its 
infancy of organism ; and being in most cases not far 
removed from the first crosses, there yet lingers a 
struggle of the different bloods for supremacy ; and 
we find many more cases of reverting to the original, 
than in older and better-established breeds ; yet the 
same law, in the main, controlls it; and, although 
both sexes in the progeny do not grow lighter alike, 
yet the tendency is for the males to breed to the light 
extreme, while a large percentage of the females are 
good in color, and the balance favor the dark ex- 
treme ; yet, when we consider the whole progeny 
(although we arc led to doubt the general rule when 
we think of the few black pullets that sometimes ap- 
pear) the preponderance of testimony goes to prove 
that it, like all other breeds, grows lighter by breed- 
ing. 

We have enough of the breed well on the way to 
perfection, and as we shall be troubled less with re- 
version of the progeny to the first crosses the farther 
we get from them, all can see the folly of trying to make 
the breed, instead of buying those now perfected. 

The universal rule of matins: lisrht-colored males to 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 51 

dark-colored females is clearly a mistake, for the 
male in his line generally stamps the males in plu- 
mage like himself — a type in this case which we do 
not desire. 

We mated in 1876 a more than medium-dark male 
to nearly black-barred females, and the result was the 
best colored flock of Plymouth Rock chickens we 
ever saw. There was not a black pullet in the lot, 
and the lightest shade in the males would be called 
medium color, while a light-gray male used on these 
same females produced but few desirable-colored fe- 
males, and all but very few of the cockerels were the 
counterpart of the sire. Surely in this breed it pays 
to " find the highest type to perform the paternal act " 
if we expect to produce our ideal chickens. 

These rules must not be condemned upon one ex- 
ception. " A single swallow does not make a sum- 
mer." A light cockerel for a single season may breed 
splendid chicks, breeding back to a perfect sire, but 
it is morally certain that his sons will revert with 
double force to the evils found in him ; for, if in all 
other breeds we find the rule that the chicks favor the 
grand-parents, why should this prove an exception? 
The breed, as it becomes more and more perfected, 



52 iSjpeciJic Mating of 

will bo governed more and more by the rule applying 
to other breeds. 

In the light of our experience with this breed so 
far, and finding it so in unison with our experiments 
with the Li^ht B rah mas, and the results of '77 bcim? 
like these of 76, we recommend the matings of this 
breed as follows : — 

Mating No. 1. — Males with breast of the color de- 
sired in the females, with yellow beak and legs, 
with neck, back, and tail evenly barred the 
light shade predominating, yet free from any 
white feathers in flights or tail, mated to females 
in plumage slightly darker than, yet accurately 
described by the Standard. This should be the 
mating to preserve the male line. 

Mating No. 2. — A cock like the one described in 
Mating No. 1, mated to females slightly lighter 
in color than described by the Standard, will be 
found to produce such females as the popular 
taste requires ; but the males will be hardly up 
to color. 

Mating No. 3. — Males a light medium in color, 
mated to tho very darkest females. Males ex- 



Thorough-bred Folds. 53 

ceedingly dark from this mating should not be 
used in one's best pens, for the ver}' extremes 
should be avoided. 

Mating No. 4. — Males much darker than the me- 
dium, with very deep yellow beak and legs, 
mated to light-colored females (those having 
cither gray breasts and white or cloudy neck- 
feathering), will be fouud to produce many very 
fine chicks, and the mating stands upon the same 
basis as mating No. 5 in Light Brahmas. All tho 
faded, light-colored males should not be used in 
breeding for fancy points. They cannot do tho 
breeder any good, unless wanted for poultry 
purposes. 

The color of the breast, eye, and beak are the best 
indications of color in breeding. A sire medium in 
color of plumage, with a dcep-ycllow beak, in which 
is seen indications of a color-stripe, and with a deep 
bay eye, will breed darker-colored chicks than will a 
sire dark in plumage, light in beak, and having a 
light-colored eye. 

We believe the requirements of the Standard in 
the color of the leg to be too arbitrary. There is no 



54 Specific Mating of 

reason why this breed should not be as impartially 
dealt with as the Dark Brahmas, and like them al- 
lowed to be yellow or dusky yellow in the legs. 
There is more dark-leg blood in the Plymouth Rock 
than in the Dark Brahma. Again, the females seldom 
if ever come yellow in leg when chicks, but as they 
approach maturity, grow brighter in color and clearer 
in shade. 

This breed, if properly handled and kept in its 
true position, occupying the middle ground between 
the small and Asiatic breeds, will become better 
appreciated, and any attempt to produce fowls equal" 
in size to the Asiatics will mar their usefulness. We 
are glad to see that such breeders as V. C. Gilman of 
Nashua, N. II., are taking this stand, for we believe 
they will be sustained in it. We shall breed our 
birds upon that principle, striving to produce them in 
just that size and type which will produce the most 
merit, viz : the best poultry and the greatest produc- 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 55 



BROWN LEGHORNS. 




BROWN LEGHORNS. 



The first importation of Brown Leghorns into this 
country was in 1853. This importation was bred 
along the Mystic River, Conn., and they were then 
called Bed Leghorns. These fowls were short in leg, 
ted in ear-lobe, and very small in size. The modern 
acquisition of white ear-lobes, long legs, and no4 
more than five points in the comb, the dark-brown 
color, and greater weight, has been the result of the 



56 Specific Mating of 

following crosses known to the writer : Spanish sires 
bred upon Black Red Game hens, and the progeny 
bred to Brown Leghorn cocks, and this progeny in- 
bred to sire ; again, Black-Red Game sire upon Black 
Spanish dams, and the progeny bred to Brown Leg- 
horn cock, and inbred as before ; and Black Spanish 
hens have been bred to Brown Leghorn cocks, and 
the progeny inbred. 

Thus we have birds of a type far different from 
the original ones, and the Brown Leghorns of 1877 
are as much different in color and type from those of 
1853 as can well be imagined ; and they well deserve 
the appellation of an American-bred bird. Now 
there is an excuse for these crosses. They were 
found to be chance birds in their own country, but in 
acclimating prove a valuable acquisition to this coun- 
try's poultry stock. Finding the stock indifferently 
bred in its native country, it was considered easier to 
produce blood for new infusions from a foreign ele- 
ment, which was of greater benefit than to rely on 
new importations. Were we making a specialty of 
the breed, we would certainly make the following 
crosses for future use, viz : A Black Bed Game cock 
upon a mahogany-breasted Partridge Cochin hen, 
breeding a pullet of this mating to a Black Spanish 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 57 

cock; and that progeny to a fine Brown Leghorn 
cockerel, and breed his pullets back to him. The 
breeder would in this way get the needed size, quiet 
disposition, and the constitution of the Cochin ; and 
also run clear of the white feathers produced by the 
use of the Claybornc Game of recent crosses. 

Breeders will appreciate this trouble, and such a 
stock of birds will in three years be much valued. 
They arc needed now, for the race is fast losing size 
and stamina. Of course size and constitution can bo 
given in a single cross, but such a cross would be too 
crude. The half-bred Spanish and Game pullet will 
do this ; but it would injure one's reputation to put 
such eggs on the market. Patience and perfect breed- 
ing pays. 

In these crosses, and in fact in all crosses, let the 
point sought for be the get of the breed in which it 
is the prominent feature. For instance, if you would 
cross for a white ear lobe, use the Spanish male on 
the Leghorn female ; for the progeny carry back to 
grand-sires, and Spanish crosses will show the white 
ear even in the sixth generation. The result that 
breeders arc striving for can be more easily attained 
in this way, than by the use of the Spanish hen. 
The Brown Leghorn race is faulty in this respect, for 



58 jSpecific Mating of 

just this reason ; and it is a very strong proof that 
the original fowls were red in the lobe. We find it 
much easier to get females with fine ears than males. 
In mating the race as we find it at the present time, 
we would recommend the following : — 

Mating No. 1. — Sire, a cockerel with a rich bay 
hackle striped with black, which as a chick was 
also known to have had the neck feathers black 
in stripe ; comb having but five points, and in 
other respects standard. 

The dam, pure salmon brown, but not that 
deep shade sometimes seen ; the ground-color of 
back and wing coverts pure brown, penciled 
with a darker brown, and the feathers of saddle, 
lapping on to the tail , having a sage tinge to* the 
brown color. Wings free from all red or brick 
color ; the hackle free from all yellowish-brown 
pencilings ; comb that stands partially erect, roll- 
ing at about one half its height, and in other re- 
spects as near to the description of the Standard 
as can be obtained. 

This is the " ne plus ultra," and should be the 
mating for the male line. The females from this 
mating will be fine also. 



Thorough-bred Fowls, 59 

Mating No. 2. — Males as near Standard as possible, 
except the comb should have five points, and the 
neck-hackle may be a light bay with a tolerably 
good stripe in it. A very narrow but black 
stripe is to be preferred, though one broader but 
not much darker than a brown, may be tolerated. 
Females quite dark in the salmon shade of 
breast, wings and back brown with penciling that 
shades nearer black than brown ; also wings free 
from any red shading. In other respects Stand- 
ard. Such a mating will produce as fine females 
as mating No. 1. 

Mating No. 3. — Males of a like character as de- 
scribed in mating No. 2, yet a lighter shade can 
be indulged in. 

Pullets with exceedingly dark breasts, and 
having the red tinge in the wings. This reddish 
tinge is a serious fault, yet such birds produce 
many fine chicks. 

Mating No. 4. — Males dark-bay hackled, the stripe 
being very distinctly defined, even at the base, 
so wide as to form a black necklace around the 
neck — in fact the dark extreme in color, and 
Standard as to form. 



CO Specific Mating of 

Females, those we term tlic light extreme, 
whose back and wing coverts look like faded 
brown cloth, and pale in breast color. 

The progeny may be restored to color in this cross 
and faulty females thereby utilized. The light straw- 
hackled, mottle-breasted, and bronze-thighed males 
should be killed, for to use them is an evil to be 
shunned, as described in other breeds. The first and 
second matings arc considered the perfect ones, and 
the third and fourth those of expediency or necessity. 
The breed is certainly one of the best for practical 
purposes, and with the Plymouth Rock, seems to fill a 
place in the economy of poultry that none of the other 
varieties are so well capable of doing. 

We cannot leave the breed without a tribute to the 
late J. R. Pierce of Worcester, for he was a gcntle- 
mau and a genial friend, and the stock he left, was 
in all probability the purest in real Leghorn blood of 
any in the country. Mr. Pierce acquired the new 
features of white earlobes, and high station, with less 
of foreign blood than any other breeder. He was a 
strong advocate of selection in breeding. We think 
it will be found to be true that he never made a Span- 
ish cross, and sold the birds for pure Leghorns in his 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 61 

life. He leaves us a legacy of honesty in the trade 
that many would do well to emulate. Many re- 
member the cock "Chief" bred by him, which was 
the best in five well contested and prominent exhibi- 
tions ; and which is now over five years old, and still 
holding the vigor of his youth. This bird, with the 
entire Pierce stock, was purchased by Ecv. H. A. 
Shorey of Boston, and formed the foundation blood 
of that gentleman's present breeding stock. May the 
future record of this strain bo no less successful than 
its history has shown it to be in the past. 



62 Specific Mating of 



BUFF COCHINS. 



In Self-Colors the male should always be the darker 
in shade. 

Mating No. 1. — A cockerel of a deep reddish buff- 
color, with chestnut tail and wings, Standard in 
other respects, should be mated to hens that are 
pure buff in color, medium in shade, and in form 
of structure as described in the Standard. 

Mating No. 2. — A cock of medium shade, the result 
of a reddish-buff cockerel, but showing black in 
wing and tail, mated to pullets that are good ex- 
hibition color, will produce fine females, while 
pullets very dark in shade mated to this same bird 
will produce fine males. 

Mating No. 3. — Males, dark in every respect even 
having nearly black tails, to pale-whitish buff fe- 
males. This is the only mating of extremes, 
especially in Buffs, that should be made. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. ( J 3 

All pale-buff males should be sacrificed to the mar- 
ket-mau, for they not only become mealy in the 
wings and white in the tails with age, but their 
progeny as a rule are faulty, and it is worse than folly 
to use them as breeders. 



61 



Specific Mating of 



SOLID COLORS. 




HAMBURG HEN, 

In the solid colors like white and black a good con- 
stitution and health while breeding is all-important, 
no matter what the breed, for brilliancy of color and 
purity of shade arc dependent upon it. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 65 

The rule to guide in mating is as follows :— 
A metallic-black male mated to females of the samo 
hard smooth surface-color is the best for both males 
and females, but such a cock mated to females dead- 
black, lacking in brightness and metallic surface, 
will breed fine pullets, but the male progeny is gen- 
erally much poorer than the female. In black there 
is little to do beyond these two distinctions of color. 
The metallic hard-finished surface and the dull black, 
if crossed, restores to the progeny the metallic-black 
desired. Birds of this cross should be mated to 
those of the metallic-black mating. 

These facts wc glean from our friend James M. 
Lambing whose cut wo present. Mr. Lambing keeps 
up the blood of his Hamburgs by importing each year 
the best blood he can procure. 



66 Specific Mating of 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

ON THE TREATMENT OF BREEDING-STOCK. 

A few general remarks as to repairing diseased or 
broken plumage, etc., may not come amiss. 

If in white birds, or in the white in parti-colored 
specimens, colored feathers appear, especially if black 
feathers appear in white, they will oftentimes if pulled 
be replaced by feathers true to the color of the 
breed. 

Young cockerels are often attacked by older birds, 
and their plumage marred, in which case the feathers 
so injured grow slim and longer than the others. We 
have seen sickle feathers corrugated along the quill 
and white in a black tail, removed, and afterwards re- 
placed by a perfectly black pair. We should not 
despair of an otherwise exhibition bird, till we had' 
removed these diseased and faulty feathers, and given 
time for them to grow anew, for the majority of cases 
prove their restoration true to color. 

The only way we can keep our stock in presentable 
plumage during the breeding-season is by watchful- 
ness, and bv removing all diseased and broken feath- 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 07 

ers, which will be replaced by new ones ; otherwise 
the fowls must wear their broken plumage till the 
moulting season, and look badly. 

A Light Brahma having, say from two to twenty 
black-tainted feathers in the back, if they are pulled, 
will often replace them with white ones. The pro- 
cess can be repeated till all are secured true to color. 

The best time to hatch the breeding-stock we be- 
iieve to be from May 20th to June 10th. Such birds 
come in the time of year when they do not suffer from 
cold, and they grow rapidly and continually till ma- 
ture. Cold weather comes on just in time to check 
their laying ; and generally they will not have laid more 
than ten or twelve eggs before we are ready to use 
them ; and we 2ret them vigorous from the freshness 
of youug productive life. Again, the adult fowls 
moult and rest, and generally have laid but few eggs 
before their eggs are needed for incubation. From 
such pullets, and these rested hens, we believe the 
best eggs for incubation are procured. Early pullets 
that commence laying in the fall, and lay through to 
March, sustaining a strain of six months' laying, we 
do not consider as good for the breeding-pen as the 
pullets named above. We believe the time and the 



G8 Specific Mating of 

way which approaches nearest nature's fitness of 
things, the best to produce our breeding-stock. 

The first forty eggs laid by a hen after moulting, 
or the eleventh to the fiftieth egg laid by a pullet, arc 
better, and the chicks from them prove larger and 
finer, than those laid afterwards during the same breed- 
ing-season. 

Cockerels are the safest for winter breeding. A 
good plan is to use a cockerel till April 1st, and then 
turn the harem over to a young male coming two 
year, old, from which to raise }*our breeding-stock, 
thus producing them in the time of year nature in- 
tended. Such birds generally have more symmetry 
and merit than those unnaturally produced. 

There can be no definite rule for number of females 
to one male ; this the breeder's good sense must de- 
termine. There must be enough so that copulation 
will not be accompanied with coercion. This number 
will be found to be. in Asiatics, from eight to fifteen ; 
in PI}-mouth Rocks, ten to twenty ; Iloudans, from 
ten to fifteen ; and in Leghorns the number can still 
be increased. "Where less numbers arc kept, the male 
should not be allowed to run with the females con- 
stantly. 

Experience teaches that twenty is belter than two. 



Thorough-bred Fowls. GO 

Two years ago we had birds penned in numbers rang- 
ing from six to eighteen, and in every case the eggs 
from the larger number hatched the best. In one pen 
they utterly failed, and when we increased the num- 
ber to fifteen birds nearly all the eggs hatched, and the 
progeny were largely female. 

The feed while the plumage is growing, both in 
chicks and moulting fowls, has much to do whk its 
color. Writers affirm that the reason wild birds arc 
so stereotyped in color is because of their freedom to 
select just what food they need. We do not think it 
so much the kind as the supply of it, and protection 
from the injurious effects of the sun, that controls the 
color ; nor do we acknowledge that the wild partridge 
is any more stereotyped in color and form than our 
Partridge Cochins. This question was raised at the 
Connecticut Poultry Exhibition, when II. F. Feleh 
and H. S. Ball retired to the market and pi nuked 
feathers from different partridges and brought the 
same to compare with the Cochins then on exhibition 
which showed them to be no nearer uniform in plu- 
mage ; another fact, the partridges had both smooth 
and feathered legs. 

If a chick be starved it will not only be dwarfed in 
stature but will fail in color. We have seen speckled 



70 Specific Mating of 

half-starved Light Brahinas when put on generous 
diet slough their objectionable coats and grow plu- 
mage true to their kind. 

Young chicks should be fed on boiled egg, canary and 
millet seed, wheat, cracked corn, whole corn and bran 
mashed with corn meal. These fed in abundance, 
and a careful protection from cold winds and rains, 
will leave no excuse for bad plumage if the breed be 
pure in blood. In milk there is everything a chicken 
needs but fat. Baked indian-cake and warm milk will 
make chickens grow faster and put exhibition birds 
in better trim than any other two things we can name. 

The finest specimens are those that do not cease to 
grow from the time they hatch till full maturity. A 
chick that suffers a severe check in its growth while 
young, seldom proves a prize-bird, and, when hatched 
in winter, provision should be made for producing 
green vegetable food in the way of green oats, to 
carry them through till the grass comes in the spring. 

The care of the flock does not consist entirely in 
furnishing a plenty to eat, but watchful oversight, 
seeing to it that they do not huddle in large numbers 
in one place at night. We used to think that it was 
injurious to allow them to roost before six months of 
age, but we have altered our opinion and recommend 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 71 

it at the age of sixteen weeks. They should be induced 
to occupy low perches two inches wide, for there will 
not be one half the injury arising from this as from 
the poisoning influences of their exhalations when 
crowded into small coops. 

If we take pains to cover the chicks whose weaning 
comes in a cold season. of the year, by throwing a 
blanket over the coop to keep off the cold night-air, 
or to coop the broods in the afternoon when cold 
east-winds are blowing, we many times secure the 
season's success. By these little attentions at just the 
right time we enhance our chances of winning at the 
winter exhibitions. 

We can assist nature to do her work perfectly. 
We do not consider it a sin to straighten a hare-lip 
or crossed eyes in our children, or, if the muscle of 
the leg be contracted, to use the knife, that they may 
walk without limping the remainder of their lives, 
nor do we consider these things injurious to repro- 
duction. And taking this care of our own offspring, 
wherein is the sin, if by judicious means we secure 
perfect development in our chicks ? In nine cases in 
ten, chicks hatch with a perfect organism ; now, is 
not any work legitimate that secures its perfect de- 
velopment? Should a chick hatch web-footed, the 



72 Specific Mating of 

web should be cut back to its proper structure, thus 
liberating the toes to grow in their legitimate angles. 
While the comb in Light Brahmas chicks will hatch 
perfect, its peculiar shape makes it less likely to de- 
velop properly than a single comb. In many cases 
bad combs can be prevented by proper treatment. 

The first thing that nature docs in case of a wound 
is to repair it. Therefore, if the middle division 
is seen to be growing too rapidly, the serrations of 
this division should be pricked with a sharp instru- 
ment so as to make them bleed. This process will 
check the growth of this division and allow the side 
divisions to grow into proportion with it. If the 
middle and one side seem to be growing faster than 
the other side, the same process of treatment applied 
to both will allow the wcake'r division to grow into 
proportion with them. An old cock may give a chick 
a severe peck in one side of the comb so as to turn it 
to one side. A corresponding wound on the other 
side will maintain it in its proper position. By this 
means we succeed in making the comb grow into 
proper shape. Is it not better to do so than to let it 
grow into an irregular, deformed mass, and then turn 
butcher and cut and slash the comb, making a bad 
job of it, and receive the just censure of our fellow- 



TJiorough-bred Fowls. 73 

breeders ? Three fourths of all the bad combs are 
the result of external causes and unnatural feeding to 
produce very large birds. 

The leg-feathering can be wonderfully assisted in 
its growth, and many a crooked toe saved by pulling 
all foul feathers. The skin of the foot and leg is 
tough, and the feathers oftentimes grow along under 
it, from one fourth to one half an inch before pene- 
trating the skin, thus causing the toe to turn in. 
We have pulled these feathers four times before suc- 
ceeding in making them grow properly. 

The breeders and amateurs as a rule are too lazy 
to attend to all this minutiae (and the writer is as 
guilty as anyone he knows, yet a guide-board may 
tell the way, if it docs not go itself). 



74 Specific Mating of 



THE STRAINS OF LIGHT BRAHMAS. 



We speak of fowls as being of such and such a per- 
son's strain, but with no significance in the sense of 
individuality. Fowls cannot be said to be of a strain 
unless it can be shown by history or pedigree of blood 
that they possess fifty per cent, or more of the blood 
of the strain. A type that reproduces itself is simply 
the result of an established strain. 

It is proper to speak of Williams', Gilman's, Lam- 
bing's, Buzzell's, Dibble's, or Bacon's stock ; but to 
speak of strains of blood in this connection is all 
wrong, for there does not exist, nor has there ever 
been, but four strains of Brahma blood brought to 
the country, and we have to number the birds Mr. 
Burnham calls Grey Shanghais, to reach even that 
number. 

If A purchase a cock of B, and the second year pur- 
chase one of C, to follow it upon his flock, the chicks 
cannot be called A's strain ; nor can it be called A's 
stock, only in the sense of ownership, for the blood 
is one half C's, one fourth B's, and only one fourth 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 75 

the original blood of A's stock, C's stock being the 
more proper name, since it has twice as much blood 
of that strain as cither of the others. 

The word strain implies, in breeding, a strict ad- 
herence to the blood of a particular family or im- 
portation, admitting no more foreign blood than is 
necessary to sustain the health and vigor of the race. 

In this chapter it is our purpose to show what 
strains have been received and to what extent they 
have been retained, showing as far as possible what 
the principal Light Brahmas of the country are made 
up of; for the time has come when information show- 
ing that a recorded history of blood and breeding of 
both sire and dam is needed. 

One may have females of one strain and purchase 
a male of another, and, by in-breeding, secure both in 
their purity, for there is a constant waste going on in 
the blood, which must be replaced ; and we think it 
can be demonstrated that more than one eighth of 
foreign blood has to be introduced before the original 
suffers any organic change, and that this one eighth 
is consumed by the original in supplying this waste 
spoken of. To illustrate our position, we will mate 
the strains as wo would a pair of chicks of one strain, 
and show that the same rule of in-breeding applies to 



76 Specific Mating of 

them as to the fowls of an established strain. We 
mate a Felch sire to an Autocrat hen ; the first sea- 
sou the progeny is one half Autocrat and one half 
Felch. In the second year we mate these pullets to 
this same sire, No. 1 Felch, and produce chicks that 
are three-fourths Felch and one-fourth Autocrat. We 
also mate a cockerel of the first cross to the Autocrat 
dam, and produce progeuy three-fourths Autocrat. 
The third year we mate the three-fourths Felch pul- 
lets again to the original sire, and we produce seven- 
eighths Felch birds, while again mating a three- 
fourths Autocrat cockerel to the original dam, we 
produce a progeny seven-eighths Autocrat. We have 
now produced the two strains from a single pair, and 
we claim them to be in their purity, for the blood 
of each has been gradually reduced in each family 
until entirely consumed. Beyond the point named 
it will not do to go, as further in-breeding would re- 
sult in sterility ; yet we can take birds from each of 
these families of the third year's breeding and repeat 
the same process "ad libitum." 

We can vouch for this experiment up to this point 
of seven eighths. It is on this principle that we have 
the pure Duchess and pure Princess cattle ; and al- 
though we may say a cow is one one-huudred-and- 



Thorourjli-bred Fowls. 11 

twenty-eighth Old Favorite, yet is purely the blood 
of Old Favorite of Short^horn fame, we are consist- 
ent, for this infusion of one eighth new blood but 
supplies the waste iu the original ; consequently noth- 
ing is added, and the blood remains pure. 

Among horse-men the rule generally followed is 
to breed out, as they term it, once, and breed in 
twice, by which process they reach oniy the three- 
fourths rule, which is hardly enough to secure against 
loss of type and color in poultry ; for we have de- 
monstrated that one eighth is the amount actually 
consumed, and if we do not breed in to that extent 
our flock gradually changes in type and color. If 
with a strain once established we make a cross, and 
breed back to sires of the strain having out-crosses 
ether than the ones we have described above, we can 
breed in so far as to produce chicks sixty-one sixty- 
fourths of the blood of the original strain. Males of 
such production are valuable, but the females are 
generally poor layers and poor breeders, producing 
small, tough-shelled eggs, which seldom hatch. 

The matings that produce birds three fourths and 
seven eighths the blood of the original strain (this 
being the prolific stage of in-breeding) have the most 
merit as egg-producers and show-birds. Pride in 



78 Specific Mating of 

one's strain, and a desire to keep up the prepotency 
in the male line should be the only inducement to 
breed beyond the seven-eighths cross. 

To do this work of breeding, and the more easily 
to control it, a record or pedigree should be kept by 
every breeder ; and all males aud pens of females 
used as breeders be named, if for no other reason than 
to give them an individuality, and to fix them in 
memory. 

All breeders should keep a pedigree-book. The 
time has come which compels us to do so for self-pro- 
tection, for the prominent strains are becoming more 
or less intermingled. The Standard by its influence 
is converting the different strains into one common 
type and color. Since there is no outward indication 
of difference of blood, one can see how essential a 
pedigree is, so that in mating Ave may be sure of a 
cross when we purchase a sire or dam. One hardly 
wishes to send one thousand miles for specimens 
to put into his flock, and find them identical in blood 
with his own. 

The cattle-breeder, in purchasing a bull to stand at 
the head of his herd, looks up his pedigree, and by 
that pedigree is enabled to select one that is bred in 
line with his own stock; yet with a cross of blood 



Thorough-bred Foicls. 79 

that will by its introduction improve his herd and be 
consumed by it, without changing in any way the in- 
dividuality of the strain of blood he takes pride in 
breeding. 

This introduction of new blood is but the feeding 
of the strain ; and it is of as vital importance to 
know what we feed to the blood, as to know what we 
feed in the manger, to support the life of the organ- 
ism. 

A truthful record or pedigree would crush out the 
existing jealousies, and restore harmony, for it com- 
pels breeders to stand or fall upon their own merits, 
and makes the blood and the specimen of a strain 
worth as much in one man's hands as in another's, as 
we now see demonstrated in Short-horn cattle. 

None can fail to see what a benefit it would be, if a 
printed record, or history of all the Light Brahmas 
now bred in the States could be made as a basis, — a 
foundation-blood, from which to obtain a pedigree, or 
to use in mating ; and what an influence it would have 
on the same, by bringing such strains and sub-strains 
into notice, and as a result furnish a ready market. 

The real strains being once established, and the 
situation understood, the breeder would be relieved 
of the annoyance of having inferior stock palmed off 



80 Specific Mating of 

as his strain by irresponsible parties, and the blun- 
ders in mating made by purchasers would be pre- 
vented. The pedigree discloses the breeder ; and the 
assertion that such are Fclch, Autocrat, or Philadel- 
phia birds, if proved by a pedigree, has a meaning, 
and protects the honest breeder. We know many 
are opposed to pedigree, for it prevents the selling 
of superannuated hens as yearlings, and presents 
to the amateur too sure a rule for breeding ; for the 
selfish say : Let the beginners do as we did, and 
work out the problem for themselves by experience. 

In looking over the winning birds for the past ten 
years, it is surprising to see how universally it is true, 
that .they are the result of uniting two strains, and 
breeding back to one of them. As we present the 
history of the different strains and sub-strains, or 
flocks composed of two or more strains, with statis- 
tics as to their breeding, the rule will be apparent. 

THE BURNHAM STRAIN. 

This strain was as he affirms, and as we understand 
the matter, the Grey Shanghai of 1849-50. From 
this blood wa3 produced the fowls presented to the 
Queen. In 18G6 the purest blood of this strain was 



Thorough-bred Fowls, - 81 

found in the possession of Mr. Phillips, and was 
known and handled by Mr. Williams and Mr. Comey, 
as Phillips birds. Mr. Phillips, just before his death, 
in conversation with Mr. Comey, asserted that his 
flock was from the birds sent to the Queen by Geo. 
P. Burnham, that he had bred them as closely as he 
could, using but one or two top crosses, and breeding 
back in a general way. He did not preserve the 
strain by any fixed rule of in-breeding, yet he must 
have preserved to a large degree the original blood, as 
his birds, to a large extent, came with single combs. 
They were dark in blood, preserving the Chittagong 
characteristic of dark undercolor. The blood of 
this Chinese strain has been used to a considerable 
extent by breeders of other strains, as we will show 
anon. Until 1856 or 1858, these birds were known 
as Chittagongs, or single-combed Brahmas, as was 
also the Rankin strain. 

THE RANKIN STRAIN. 

The original birds of this strain were from India. 
This Mr. Rankin can clearly show. They were large 
in frame, had low single combs, dark undercolor in 
back, and large lemon-colored legs with a prominent 



82 Specific Mating of 

greenish-blue vein down the inside. The last feature 
seems to have followed the crosses of this strain with 
other strains, and seems to have been transmitted 
more readily than any other. Up to 1866 this strain 
or importation was kept pure. About that time the 
different exhibitions ceasing to give prizes to single- 
combed Brahmas, Mr. Rankin was compelled to use 
top crosses of pea-combed sires from the Chamberlin 
strain, and other sub or mixed strains, to secure the 
engraftment of the pea-comb on his strain ; and as 
breeding back so as to retain the pea-comb would be 
too discouraging a process to accomplish his pur- 
pose, it is more than probable that the race hardly 
held its own as a strain, for it would be obliged to 
retain full fifty per cent of the original blood to be 
called a strain now. 

These birds however have been largely used by 
the breeders of other strains, for Mr. Rankin shipped 
large numbers of them to Connecticut and to and 
about Philadelphia, which, with the Dr. Kerr birds, 
have largely entered into, and, being subject to top 
crosses of the Chamberlin strain, have become the 
origin and foundation-blood of the Philadelphia 
(Tees) strain. 



Thorough-bred Fowls, 



83 



THE PHILADELPHIA STRAIN. 




COCK WRIGHT. 
Bred by Joseph M. Wade ( FhiladelpJiu 



ain). 



The Philadelphia strain was known as Kensington 
or Tees stock about 1867 and 18G8. While these 
birds can hardly be called a distinct strain, yet as 
such they have been used, in connection with those of 
the Rankin strain, by the breeders of the Autocrat 
and Chamberlin strains, and the crosses have proved 



84 Specific Mating of 

of the very best, and as auxiliaries deserve a notice 
in this connection. 

This sub-strain (so to speak) which comprised the 
Brahmas in and about Philadelphia in 186G, were the 
winners in the Philadelphia and the New York exhi- 
bitions in that year, and were called the "Tees" 
birds. In conversation with Messrs. Henry, Tecs, 
Sharpiess, and Hers tine, we learned that the founda- 
tion-blood was originally from India and the Dr. 
Kerr birds which were from China. Whether they 
made allusion to the birds sent to Philadelphia by 
Mr. Rankin or to birds direct from Chittagong, we 
cannot say, and it makes but little difference, for, as 
they affirmed, they were single-combed, as a rule, 
and large of frame, with pale-yellow legs. 

From 1863 to 1868 these birds were converted into 
pea-combed stock by top crosses of birds from Con- 
necticut and New York, which were probably from 
the Chamberlin strain, or birds of like origin. At 
least, we know this to be true in the case of the bird 
known as the fourth-prize cock of New York, in 1868, 
at the rink, he being from a cockerel bred by Mr. 
Pool of New York, and out of hens by Baron San- 
born 302, bred by I. K. Felch. 

I have spoken of the peculiar color and vein in the 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 85 

leg of the Rankin strain, and the power with which 
the race transmitted it. 

The fact that this feature, though in a milder de- 
gree, was apparent in the crosses of the Philadelphia 
birds with those of the Felch, also with the crosses 
of the Autocrat strain, seems to indicate that the 
Rankin or similar blood entered largely into the 
foundation-blood of the Philadelphia birds of that 
period, as the parties I have alluded to affirm. 
Again, the birds brought from Philadelphia in 1868 
and 1869 had the color of the Chamberlin leg, yet 
they still retained the Rankin shape of bone, being 
more round in its formation than that of the Cham- 
berlin stock. It will be seen that all the birds pur- 
chased of Mr. Williams from his so-called " Favorite 
Stock" did not materially alter the blood, for they 
were but the result of mingling the blood of the 
Rankin, Burnham (the Phillips Stock), and the 
Chamberlin strains, which is like the blood of the 
Philadelphia strain, for Burnham's and the Dr. Kerr 
birds, they affirm, were alike and from China. 

The cock " Wright," whose cut we are able to fur- 
nish through the kindness of Joseph M. Wade, edi- 
tor of the Farmer's Journal, of Hartford^ Connecticut, 
who had him, we are assured was the best type of 



86 Specific Mating of 

the Philadelphia Brahmas of his day, 1872. These 
birds, it will be seen, were quite short in the back as 
compared to the Autocrat or Chamberlin strains. 
The descendants of this bird are now found in their 
greatest purity of blood, in the hands of McKeen 
and Hulick, of Easton, Pennsylvania, they purchasing 
of Mr. Wade eleven of Wright's sons and daughters, 
upon which there has been but one top cross, that 
being an Autocrat-bred bird, and the progeny bred 
back to the progeny of Wright. We understand 
McKeen and Plulick have procured some males of 
the same blood as Wright, and will strive to repro- 
duce these birds as near as is possible in the same 
form as they were found in 1866 and 1868, when 
such good results were obtained by the infusion of 
the blood with that of the Autocrat, and Chamber- 
lin or Felch strains. 

One fact worthy of note here is, that the old hen 
exhibited by Charles Tees in 1867, then eleven years 
old, was as line a Light Brahma hen in color and size 
as has been shown since ; and her beautiful pea-comb 
shows that there were pea-combs, and bluish under- 
colored specimens bred in 1856. She weighed four- 
teen pounds and four ounces, a larger weight for a 
Brahma hen than has since been bred. Thirteen 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 87 

pounds and fifteen ounces, and fourteen pounds being 
the best weight for a Felch bird, and fourteen pounds 
and two ounces the largest Autocrat hen on record. 
The writer fails to see that the Almighty has suffered 
man to increase the size beyond that of the original. 

There were several breeders of these Philadelphia 
birds of 1868, and if they have kept a record of the 
top crosses used since that time that have been of a 
different strain, it will be of much interest to others ; 
for, as breeders, we are compelled to breed to that 
form and color defined in the Standard of Excellence, 
and our strains constantly needing blood-food, it 
makes it necessary that the blood of each strain be 
different, and thereby does it become more valuable. 

All the strains are dependent one upon the other 
for this blood-food, and not only is it a personal in- 
terest to preserve these distinct types of blood, but 
it becomes a general necessity, for a strain that is 
isolated soon runs out ; the loss of color and vitality 
soon works its own ruin. 

The top cross of Beauty Duke upon the Philadel- 
phia birds, as Mr. Wade and the writer understands 
the matter, was simply adding a new top cross to the 
amount of one fourth the blood of the Chamberlin 
derived from the cross of the fourth-prize cock of 



88 Specific Mating of 

New York, 1868, with Felch hens. But if, as it has 
been claimed, he was the progeny of a son of Duke 
of York and a Philadelphia hen, upon a Felch 
and Philadelphia hen, then he carried into his Phila- 
delphia harem one eighth the blood of Old Autocrat 
and one eighth Chamberlin blood, as a top cross upon 
the Philadelphia birds of 18G8, and in Mr. McKcen's 
hands, I learn, the progeny was bred back to Wright, 
as in the case of the progeny from the males pur- 
chased of Mr. Plaisted, spoken of above. 



Thorough-bred Foivls. 89 



THE AUTOCRAT STRAIN. 




A LIGHT BRAHMA HEN 
of the "Autocrat " strain, winner of the National Exhibition at Chicago in 1876. 

The history of this bird, Autocrat, is well known. 
Mr. Estes purchased the bird in Fulton Market, New 
York, the seller avowing that ho was imported, The 
subsequent history of this bird, his strong breeding 



90 : Specific Mating of 

qualities, the fact that when the blood was crossed 
with other strains it produced new types, this with 
the Pearl eye so different from the prevailing bay eye 
in other Brahmas, to my mind, presents grounds for 
believing the assertion that he was imported, although 
there is no proof to that effect. 

This bird was bred one season to females whose 
foundation-blood was the Geo. P. Burnham birds, 
being the progeny of the stock sent to the Queen by 
that gentleman ; the birds being "Phillips Stock," so 
called by Mr. Williams who sent them to Mr. Estes. 
In 1866 Mr. Estes presented Autocrat to Mr. Wil- 
liams, who bred him to the best birds he could pro- 
cure from several sources. 

The better to understand the advantages received 
by the breeders of Light Brahmas through the advent 
of "Old Autocrat," it is necessary to say, that before 
the war Mr. Williams' stock of Light Brahmas con- 
sisted of the Chamberlin blood, through purchases 
of them at Valley Falls, the Burnham blood, and the 
blood of the Eankin importation. When Mr. Wil- 
liams returned from the war, his old love clinging to 
him, he commenced again, by purchasing the best 
stock he could procure in his locality, the same being 
descendants from stock he bred before going south ; 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 91 

also birds of Mr. Strout of Framingham, that were 
from a cock purchased in Abington, mated to a Felch 
hen by a son of Baron Sanborn 302 ; also, hens of H. 
G. White, which were pure Felch, by Baron Sanborn 
302. Birds bred from these elements were the foun- 
dation-blood in Mr. Williams' yards, and out of which 
came his "Favorite Stock;" and the same were in 
his possession when Old Autocrat appeared on the 
stage. Autocrat was mated to the best birds to be 
found in all these elements, and the male produce 
was Autocrat 3d, Eaton's Autocrat, Lord Berkeley, 
and two other sons. 

Old Autocrat died early in the season. Lord 
Berkeley was a dark-plumaged bird, and as he bred 
very dark he was sold to go West. 

Autocrat 3d was a very large bird but did not 
prove a good sire, many of his chicks coming single- 
combed. The greenish-blue vein was prominent in 
the leg, which strongly indicated a Rankin cross in 
his dam. He was lost by sickness, and his place 
filled by Eaton's Autocrat, who proved a good sire, 
but the plumage of his chicks was dark. In all these 
Autocrat-crosses the dark undercolor prevailed. 

One of the other sons was sent to Mr. Estes, of 
^N"orth Carolina, where he was bred to birds of 



92 Specific Mating of 

the year previous, out of the Phillips birds by Old 
Autocrat, producing the birds Colossus, Apollo, and 
Triumph, all of which were purchased by Mr. Will- 
iams. That the blood of Old Autocrat was radically 
different from other established strains, is appa- 
rent in the fact that whenever crosses were made 
with it they proved good, showing increased size and 
producing new types, which had equal strength in 
breeding with other established strains. 

The friends of the old bird express a regret that he 
could not have lived, and his progeny bred back to 
him, thinking that the results would have been aston- 
ishing ; and they consider his death a misfortune. 
Now we do not concur in this opinion, although 
friendly to Old Autocrat, for his progeny bred too 
dark. It may be said that this fault of the progeny 
was derived from the Phillips hens. To this we can- 
not assent, for to admit this is to accede the merit of 
breeding to the Phillips stock, and to admit that Old 
Autocrat was weak in breeding-qualities ; and as all 
breeding tends to grow lighter, it is this very dark 
breeding that has made his blood so valuable to 
breeders of other strains. The whole rank of breed- 
ing within two years will hail the advent of another 
such bird with joy. To prove that this dark blood 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 93 

and breeding is the work of Old Autocrat, we will 
say that all the crosses of the old bird with the Felch 
stock resulted in dark-plumage birds. The progeny 
of Autocrat 3d, whose breeding indicated so strongly 
the Rankin descent, bred even darker than the others ; 
the cross of Son of Colossus with the Felch hen 
Penelope was also dark. A son of Duke of York 
out of a Tees hen, even-mated to Felch hen, bred 
dark ; yet the Eankin blood bred to Felch did not 
breed dark, nor did the Tees hen bred to Natick, the 
Felch cock, prove dark. We could cite other cases of 
like breeding, all of which goes to prove Old Auto-, 
crat to have been dark in blood ; and in my judgment, 
had he lived to have been bred to his own progeny, 
they would have been so very dark that he and his 
descendants would have been abandoned. As it is, 
he and his blood have proved a blessing, and, where 
breeders of other strains have had the patience to 
wait and breed back, have been very much appre- 
ciated. The fact that the hens he was bred to in Mr. 
Williams' hands were of a mixed strain of blood, 
made his progeny of far more value ; for it gave the 
power of breeding more readily to his influence, and 
they being thus made up, gave the preponderance of 
blood to Old Autocrat, which with this great strength 



94 Specific Mating of 

of breeding which we have shown, entitles the blood 
to the name of a " strain." One thing is certain, his 
blood has been the only competitor the Cbamberlin- 
Felch strain has ever had, and surely the Felch and 
the Autocrat birds have done more to make the inter- 
est in Light Brahmas what it is in America, than all 
other causes combined. 

So thoroughly has Mr. Williams become identified 
with this strain, that to a great extent it is quoted as 
Williams stock. But there are others in a like man- 
ner quoted, which makes it fair to state that Mr. 
Johnson of Newburyport, Mass., Mr. Comey of 
Quincy, Mass., Mr. Plaisted of Hartford, Conn., Mr. 
Buzzell of Clinton, Mass., as well as Mr. Williams, 
its principal, are breeding the Autocrat strain, fed by 
the blood of the Felch and the Philadelphia strains, 
and that of other sub-strains, to maintain its vitality. 

The author of w Secrets in Fowl Breeding " speaks 
of Mr. Plaisted as breeding the Chamberlin strain ; 
but this is not correct, if we are to credit the pedi- 
grees in the M Poultry- World's Pedigree Book." By 
consulting that, we see that it is as strongly bred to 
Autocrat as can well be. done, for that gentleman, 
when he renewed his old love in breeding Brahmas, 
purchased of Emory Carpenter his entire stock, which 



Jhorough-bred Fowls. 95 

comprised one brother of Colossus, and Carpenter's 
stock, being Autocrat with Tees and Felch crosses, 
the latter through the Felch hen purchased of Mr. 
Buzzell. 

At this time, or soon after, Mr. Plaisted also pur- 
chased of Mr. Williams two other brothers of Colossus, 
making three sires begotten by the son of Old Auto- 
crat, spoken of as sent by Mr. Williams to Mr. 
Estes, and out of pullets by Old Autocrat out of the 
Phillips hens first sent to Mr. Estes by Mr. Williams. 
He also purchased of Mr. Williams a pen of six hens 
and one cock, known as his Favorite strain (see in 
history of Autocrat) , and a pen of six hens and one 
cock, one-half Autocrat and one-half Favorite blood, 
buying, as he termed it, families for breeding pens, 
which, as may be seen, makes the weight of blood in 
the Plaisted stock Autocrat, if we are to accept the 
pedigrees as printed, and the above facts. 

DUKE OF YORK 

Mr. Comey's Duke of York was a grandson of Old 
Autocrat in a double sense, for both his sire and dam 
were the progeny of Old Autocrat out of the Phillips 
hens, bred by Mr. Estes. The Phillips hens, as we have 



96 /Specific Mating of 

described above, were in foundation-blood the same as 
the stock sent to the Queen by Mr. Burnham. The 
Duke of York was a vigorous bird, and lived to be 
bred to his own progeny, and also to the Philadelphia 
hens purchased of Chas. Tees by Mr. Comey ; and to 
this mating we believe should be given the credit of 
bringing out in its best form the breeding qualities of 
the Duke, for sons by the Duke out of his daughter, 
mated with the pullets by him out of the Philadelphia 
hens, proved excellent birds ; but the first cross with 
the Philadelphia hen developed poor combs, as did 
the Philadelphia stock with the Felch. . 

It may be asked by the friends of Philadelphia 
stock, where the progeny of Colossus got their faulty 
combs ? We will say, just where the Tees stock got 
it, — from the Rankin. The blood was there, and large 
birds could not be forced without its development. 

Mr. Comey made crosses of the Rankin strain, 
which, as he informs us, he abandoned, as it with the 
York blood developed nothing desirable but size. 
Since 1869 Mr. Comey has confined himself prin- 
cipally to different Autocrat crosses, as can be 
seen in the Duke of Norfolk, Duke of Springfield, 
etc., descendants of Colossus, Apollo, and Triumph. 
He has adhered more closely to in-brccding than 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 97 

most other friends of the strain. The Light Brahmas 
known as the 

BUZZELL STOCK 

had in foundation-blood the Chamberlin strain, more 
generally known as the Felch strain up to 1869, when 
Mr. Buzzell commenced to use top crosses of Phila- 
delphia, also Philadelphia and Autocrat sires in the 
way of son of Duke of York, Colossus, and others ; 
he also introduced, in 1869, females from the Felch 
strain by Honest Abe 307. Mr. Buzzell has not con- 
fined himself to any one line, and his stock must 
be spoken of in general terms as Autocrat, Philadel- 
phia, and Felch blood, the first-named probably pre- 
dominating. 

In closing our remarks upon the blood of Autocrat, 
we will say that, so far as they allude to Mr. Williams, 
they were submitted to him, and after examination 
by that gentleman we received the following : — 

Mr. Felch : — 

I have your manuscript, and have carefully read it. I 
cannot see that you have made any mistakes, or said anything that 
is not true ; neither could I add anything that would make the 
history more complete. Wishing you success, I am, 

Yours truly, 

P. WILLIAMS. 



98 Specific Mating of 



THE CHAMBERLIN STRAIN, NOW SO WIDELY E^OWN AS 
THE "FELCH STRAIN." 

{See group of Brahmas opposite page 74.) 

This strain is well known as coming from the birds 
that were found by Mr. Knox in the India ship in 
New York City in 1847. The first to breed these 
birds were Mr. Chamberlin and Mr. Cornish of Con- 
necticut, and Mr. Smith and Mr. Childs of Rhode 
Island, the last-named individual winning the Al- 
bany and Barnum exhibitions of New York. The 
strain was in but very few hands up to 1852, at which 
time at Boston, it created the sensation which gave to 
the breed an identity and a name. For several years 
it went by the name of Brahmas or Short-legged 
Chittagongs, the breeders clinging to the then good 
reputation of the Chittagong. But from 1857 to 
1865 we see the Chittagong conceding the palm to 
the Brahma, by returning the compliment and being 
exhibited as single-combed Brahmas ; and finally, in 
1865 Ave find them discarded altogether as a race — 
the edict that all Brahmas should have a pea-comb 
sending them into oblivion. 

This Chamberlin strain from its advent has bred, as 
a rule, pjja-combs and orange-yellow legs. The early 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 99 

specimens being creamy- white, and the prevailing 
undercolor bluish-white, it has been a struggle to 
keep this bluish undercolor, for all strains grow 
lighter, and at the present writing, with all the care 
to retain it,, one half the specimens will come white 
in undercolor. To secure fine neck-hackles and 
dark tails and wings, this bluish-white undercolor is 
absolutely necessary ; and in introducing new blood 
into a strain one can see how important it is that a 
dark specimen be chosen. 

From the original birds bred by Mr. Chamberlin 
came the cock Imperial 300 (the male that has been 
facetiously mentioned as the bird Mr. Felch bought 
for a dollar or two, out of a hen-cart), the founder of 
the well-known Felch strain of Light Brahmas. 

The female to which Imperial 300 was mated, came 
from eggs purchased of Mr. Childs (alluded to above) , 
and were from Virgil Cornish, being in blood the 
same, and the name of Chamberlin strain would be 
far more appropriate as indicative of its origin ; but 
as the breeding-world have seen fit, in their generosity, 
to know the strain by the name of the writer of this 
work, he can only accept the situation. 

The writer is well aware that but for his love for 
the breed during the lull in the chicken fancy, from 



100 Specific Mating of 

1855 to 1864, when nearly all the fanciers allowed 
their fowls to run out, so to speak, and accidental 
good luck in the way of an egg laid by Old Princess 
out of which Honest Abe 307 was hatched, he too would 
have lost his interest, and with it would have been 
lost the pedigree and proof of blood that has pre- 
served the identity of the strain. 

The writer would prefer that the strain should be 
known by the name of its original founder rather 
than to have it as it is ; for he is now made respon- 
sible for the breeding of the strain, it matters not 
who mates them, nor how far they are removed from 
his breeding ; for then he could stand or fall on his 
own merits as a breeder, and his reputation would 
only be affected by the specimens bred by him and 
sold by himself. In speaking of the management of 
the strain, we will do so in the first person, submitting 
the following : — 

Since the purchase of Imperial 300 and the egg 
out of which I produced the hen Lady Childs, I have 
kept a true record of blood and breeding of all the 
families of the strain which I have bred. This dis- 
closes all the introductions of new blood, and from 
what source it has come. These introductions of new 
blood have been made on the principle that all animal 



Tliorough-bred Fowls. 101 

life is suffering a continual waste, and is in as constant 
need of blood-food in a reproductive sense, as it is of 
daily food to supply the waste in the individual, and 
experience teaches that no strain can be sustained 
without this supply. 

The blood used to vitalize the strain in nay hands 
has been : First the blood of the old Nanturier hen, as 
seen in the use of Dutchess, in 1858, being used as 
stock in my pedigree fowls in the hen Princess 362, 
which was one-eighth Nanturier blood. 

The next cross was Lady Mills 364, she being 
three-fourths Chamberlin and one-fourth Burnham 
blood, her one-fourth foreign blood being derived 
from the then so-called Chittagong or Gray Shanghai, 
from the Burnham Qeeen strain. Since 1865 all 
new blood has been drawn from the Autocrat strain, 
as seen in the following birds (see my pedigrees, 
in the World's Pedigree Book) : — 

Autocrat Belle, 392; Eaton Belle, 407; Lady 
Ipswich, 1022 ; and Maud Williams, 4146 ; and the 
cocks Experiment, 337 ; and Ned Williams, 4145, a 
brother to Duke of Springfield. 

The crosses from the Philadelphia birds being Chi- 
cago Belle, 382 ; Mrs. Strout, 404 ; and the cockerel 
fourth-prize cock of New York, 1868. 



102 Specific Mating of 

By the tracing of these pedigrees it will be seen 
just how much blood other than the Chamberlin (the 
original blood) is now represented in the Felch birds, 
or strain now bred by me. I will speak of some of 
the characteristics developed by these crosses. 

While it was asserted, at the 1852 exhibition, at 
Boston, that this was a breed that would never run 
out, and although there has never been a breed so 
severely in-bred, yet all this introduction of blood 
was necessary to preserve the original type and color ; 
for if continually in-bred a loss of constitution, a 
change of type, and a reversion to white in color 
would have followed, while the third in-breeding of 
new blood to a strain will invariably result in fine 
specimens. 

In the early crosses of Autocrat blood with the 
Felch, the progeny was invariably too dark in plu- 
mage ; and although oftentimes developing new types, 
the first in-breeding would restore three fourths of 
the progeny, while a portion of the males would 
revert to light color, as in the case of Moses 327. 
The third in-breeding to the strain was necessary to 
a full restoration to the Felch type and color. (For 
my reason for that, see notes in history of Old Au- 
tocrat.) 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 103 

The cross of Experiment 347 (Autocrat) with Co- 
lumbia 386 (Felch), produced chicks of the same 
character, which took two in-breedings to restore. 

The cross of Son of Colossus (Autocrat) to Hene- 
lope 1019 (Felch) presented the same feature ; but the 
third in-breeding to the strain produced birds scal- 
ing 92 to 94 points, and many won first prizes. I 
think that had Old Autocrat lived to have been bred 
to his own progeny, his blood, so highly prized by 
breeders of other strains as new blood, would have 
been discarded. As it is, I presume Mr. Williams 
and myself have oftentimes been censured, or at 
least the stock has been, for this very virtue, — 
strength of breeding, — by those striving to cross the 
strains, and many a good bird abandoned, which, had 
it been bred back to either strain would have devel- 
oped fine stock. 

The early crosses of the Philadelphia birds with the 
Felch invariably produced lopped combs, and many 
that maintained their upright position had the middle 
division much too high. This and the development 
of the greenish-blue vein on the leg show clearly the 
India cross in the blood of the Philadelphia birds. 

The color was easily controlled, and although there 
was seemingly no difference in the size, yet the pro- 



1 04 Specific Mating of 

gcny were much larger in the first cross, and were 
longer in arriving at maturity. Chicago Belle 382 
weighed twelve pounds at twelve months old. This 
cross as developed in Prince 321 by Honest Abe 307, 
proved a very desirable one as can be proved by BE. S. 
Ball, T. L. Sturtevant, and Mark Pitman, all of 
whom used him in breeding. Again Tees Duke (Phil- 
adelphia blood) bred to Lady Fay (Felch) by a son of 
Honest Abe 307, produced the sire and dam of the 
two hens known as the Sturtevant hens, each weigh- 
ing thirteen and one fourth pounds, which were never 
exhibited without winning a prize. Their sire and 
dam were not large, as Mr. Strout, of Framingham, 
Mass., their breeder, can testify. 

The fourth-prize cock of New York for 1868 was 
one half Philadelphia, one fourth Felch, and one 
fourth the blood of fowls bred by Mr. Pool of New 
York. This cock bred to Felch pullets, daughters 
of Honest Abe 307, produced Lady Bice 405, out 
of which, by a son of Honest Abe 307 (Optimus 315) , 
was bred Cceur de Lion 326, one of the best Light 
Brahma cocks ever bred in America, and the sire of 
many prize-chicks, among which was Poqonnuck 999, 
Ben Lidi 2777, Cceur de Leon 6th, Leo 2776, 
and others, selling from 25 to $100 each, pro- 



Thorough-bred Fowls. 105 

ducing $1425 worth of chicks in a single season. 
All these crosses of Philadelphia blood were controlled 
in color, which leads me to consider the top crosses of 
the Philadelphia birds to be Chamberlin blood, or 
that of a kindred nature. I speak of these crosses 
to show how dependent the breeder of one strain is 
upon those breeding another, and that whenever new 
blood is taken into any strain of well-bred birds, 
when it is reduced by in-breeding to that quantity 
which will soon be consumed by the strain, that the 
best results are reached. This constant feeding of 
the blood is necessary, and without it no strain can 
long survive. By one systematic rule we can keep 
repeating results year after year. 

Science tells us that we are changing constantly ; 
the waste in our blood is renewed by new blood, yet 
the blood in breeding type is the same. So is it with 
strains. The new blood by in-breeding becomes the 
weaker and the prey of the original blood that con- 
sumes it, constantly invigorating the original and not 
changing it in the least in type and color. 

The stock known as the " Sturtevant birds " were 
in the main Felch blood, and after the first year's 
breeding remained three fourths Honest Abe blood 
and one fourth that of the fourth-prize cock of New 



106 Specific Mating of 

York in 1868 ; the former being Felch, the latter one- 
half Philadelphia, one-fourth Felch, and one-fourth 
Pool blood. Cceur de Leon 326 was bred by T. L. 
Sturtevant, thirteen-sixteenths Felch blood, and as I 
have said, was one of the best birds ever bred in Amer- 
ica. Mr. Sturtevant did not appreciate him, always 
supposing his best birds came from a bird which h» 
many times won the Boston exhibitions. That Mr. 
Sturtevant was honest in his belief is apparent in tht> 
fact that he loaned Cceur de Leon to H. F. Felch for 
the season of 1874, with the results previously de- 
scribed. 

The cross of the Philadelphia blood with the Felch, 
as developed in the breeding through Prince 321 and 
Cceur de Leon 326 in the yard of Thos. L. Sturte- 
vant, and later in the mating of Cceur de Leon 326 
with Parepa 395 by Moses 327, by H. F. Felch in 
1874, was no doubt the best coupling of two strains 
ever made. Had Mr. Sturtevant's zeal for poultry 
culture been as lasting as it was fervent at times, he 
would have led the van. But his greater love for his 
dog and gun, and the pressure of business, have led 
him to abandon the breeding of poultry for the 
present. 

To review the subject of strains, we come to this 



Tlwrough-bred Fowls. 107 

fact : that there are but very few strains and very few 
marked specimens from which originality of type has 
been established ; and when we indulge in top crosses 
we destroy the strain, unless we resort to in-breeding 
to secure the benefit of the cross, and to ensure the 
type of the strain. 

We find also that all the strains or sub-divisions of 
strains were, in their origin, dark in undercolor, and 
that with age they grow lighter, and if left to them- 
selves they may lose their original type, change being 
written on all ; and only by persistent effort can these 
original types be retained. We should feel that as 
long as we deliver up into other hands these strains 
as good as we receive them, we have been equal to 
the task of breeding them, and should be considered 
breeders ; and that if we can improve a breed, surely 
we deserve praise. I am one of the few that say 
there are no better specimens exhibited to-day than 
were exhibited years ago. But I do believe the gen- 
eral average is far better. The excellence of the few 
is controlled by a fixed law, viz : The eternal fitness 
of things, which says "Thus far canst thou go, O 
man, and no farther." We are not endowed with the 
infinite, and our matings are sometimes blunders. 

If in this little work I shall have caused but one 



108 Specific Mating of 

to breed with care and thought as regards the correct 
principles of breeding, instead of a hap-hazard sort 
of way, settling all these questions by personal ex- 
aminations, acting on the principle of working by no 
rule that does not have the endorsement of sound 
judgment, then I shall not regret the labor it has 
cost. 



Fijsris. 



APPENDIX. 



TO OUR PATRONS AND FRIENDS. 

Now, as the last pages of this work go to press, so 
generous has been the support of our friends, that we 
are enabled to say that nearly the whole edition has 
been ordered, and will be quite exhausted by the time 
it can be distributed ; and we are led to thank those 
who have lent their support. 

First, to those who have advertised with us, thereby 
assisting us in a substantial manner : being grateful 
for their favors, we take pleasure in calling the at- 
tention of our readers to them, knowing, as we do, 
that they arc honorable men ; and we can fully endorse 
them, for they will deal fairly with their patrons. 

To Messrs. P. Willliams, Joseph M. Wade, George 

Butters, C. A. Kccfer, and James M. Lambing, for 

the cuts furnished us, which wo deem the best of the 

many now in use ; and if they are the portraits of 

these gentlemen's breeding stock, no more need be 

said in their praise. 

109 



110 Appendix. 

To E. C. Comey and Joseph M. Wade, for infor- 
mation which enabled the writer to present the sub- 
ject-matter upon strains of Light Brahmas in its 
present relations. 

To the Poultry Journals, for generous courtesies 
extended to us. 

And last, but not least, to James F. Mooar, and 
Edwin DeMeritte for personal favors received at their 
hands. 

To each and all of these, and to the generous pub- 
lic and fraternity of Poultry Breeders, who have 
come forward with their support, we return our 
thanks, hoping that the present pleasant relations 
may ever exist. 

I. K. FELCH. 

Natick, Mass., 
August, "77 



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I believe in specialties, and past experience teach- 
es me, that one breed well handled pays best. 

For merit of quick growth, hardy constitution, 
early and persistent layers, number of eggs produced, 
combined with beauty of plumage, none equal the 

BROWN LEGHORN. 

I have this year added to my own strain the well 
known 

PEIRCE STRAIN, 

which Mr. Felch so justly compliments. Among 
which is the noted cock 



OHOT f 



The winner of four first Premiums. 

I am. able to furnish chicks pure from each of 
these strains and those combining the two ; and my 
price will be according to the number of points they 
scale and no cull, sold at any price. 

This seasons breeding has been very successful, 
and I can furnish stock for 

■fiillif iii H«M6iiI#m 

that is equal to any in the country. 

Address by letter for particulars and price. (Postal cards not noticed.) 

H. A. SHOREY, 

146 Tremont St., Golden Rule Office, Boston, Mass. 



R U P P I L L S. 

This old-established and Popular Remedy has 
given such 

UNIVERSAL SATISFACTION 
that we have secured its exclusive proprietorship. 

Agents Wanted. 

We want a suitable Agent in every town in the 
U. S., and Canada, to sell the 

<;<» pin an Roup 'Pills. 

This medicine has been before the public over five 
years, and is well known to poultry keepers, and 
sells readily. We offer a liberal discount to our 
agents. The Roup is the most prevalent disease 
among poultry, and a poultry dealer can sell many 
packages in a year among his customers, with very 
little trouble. Apply at once and secure an agency. 

There are spurious Roup Pills in the market, 
vendors of which are trying surreptitiously to profit 
by the well-earned fame of the original German 
Roup Pills. 

Beware of Imitations. 

Retail Price, 50 Cents per box of genuine Ger- 
man Roup Pills, sent by mail to any address on re- 
ceipt of price. 

Address, 

h. h. SToi>r>ARr>. 

Editor and Proprietor of Poultry World. 

Hartford, Conn. 



1877. 



u 



Mw® Mm® jysw ww appp 
Watertown, - - - Conn. 

BREEDER OF 

P11T1IBCE COCMMS, 

Bred from Imported Stock, and from fine Speci- 
mens from the Felch and Williams' Strain. 

Plymouth Rocks, 

from the well known Upham Stock. 
I can furnish Eggs in their season and 

FOWLS AND CHICKENS, 

at Short Notice, and will satisfy all who will en- 
trust their orders to me. 

In ordering Stock be particular and describe fully 
what you want, and in shiping directions, give your 
Town, County and State in full. 

I could give a List of Premiums Won, but prefer 
to sell my stock on their merits. 

R. B. LEWIS. 



Whe W&mMwy Wiflii 

IS THE 

OLDEST, LARGEST 

MOST 

Splendidly* IHiistpatedL* 

AND THE 

Best Periodical, 

(Devoted Exclusively to (Poultry. 

THAT THERE IS TINT EXISTENCE. 
PUBLISHED BY 

H. H. STODDARD, 

Hartford Conn., 

Subscriptions $1,25 per year, 



Advertisements. — One Month, 30 cents per 
|ine ; Three Months, 25 cents ; Six Months, 20 
cents ; Twelve Months, 15 cents. 



A Series of Twelve Magnificent 



Each Representing a Standard Breed of Fowls, 
Sent for Seyenty-fiye Cents Extra. 



18 7 7. 



BREEDERS OF 

Trotting and Road Horses, 

AND 

^lior-t Horned Cattle. 

ALSO, 

ThoroLigli-bred Poultry and. Pigeons 

Consisting of the following varieties : 



Mglt BpaJuiMiM 



( PHILADELPHIA STRAIN ) 
COCHINS, LEGHORNS, 

AND WHITE HOLLAND TURKEYS, 

SOLID, SILVER TURBITS, 

CARRIERS, OWLS, 

AND ANTWERP PIGEONS. 

Our Lt. Brahmas are bred directly from a Strain 
of blood, which finds its foundation in the blood of 
the Cock 



We have other yards the result of " Wright's" 
progeny upon the Autocrat Strain, and it is an ac- 
knowledged fact, that the best results follow cross- 
es, of these Philadelphia Birds with other prom- 
inent Strains. 

Correspondence is solicited. 

Address, EASTQN, PENN. 



1877. 



VZ 



, WMMAXBU 



JLi J^-e J»f X^.JLJ. ^' JJU|- 

NAVIOK* MAM. 

BREEDER OF 

Jersey and Ayrshire Cattle, 

Berkshire Pigs, 

and Shepherd Dogs. 

Pedigree 

FELCH STRAIN. 

Dark Brahmas, Cochins, 
Plymouth Rocks, 

White and Brown Leghorns, 

Pekin Ducks, 
Bronze Turkeys, and Pigeons. 

J^^Each Breed Colonized on a different Farm 
to prevent Crossing. 



1877. 



Mm e® AJABIdM* 



BREEDER OF 



Houd®n Vowls* 

(EXCLUSIVELY.) 

My present breeding Stock, has a wonderful in- 
creased size as compared to the early importations, 
and in merit, as egg producers and fine color and 
symmetry equal to any strain now bred in the States. 

Among my several yards are the Sire 

COL. BLAKE, 

a Ccck weighing eight and three-fourths lbs., (being 
by the "old cock" Capt. Ward) and Ten Females 
weighing from six and one-half to seven and three- 
fourths lbs., all models of symmetry and color, and 
from whieh I offer young Stock for Sale that are of 
superior merit as breeding Stock or for Exhibition. 

W@w Pftaliai W#m 

by my Strain, I would call your attention to the 
different Poultry Societies Reports for the past five 
years. 

Write for particulars and address me at 

Hyde Park, Mass. 



DEVOTED ENTIRELY TO 

THE FANCIERS' INTERESTS, 

Splendidly Illustrated ; Strictly the Fanciers' 
Friend: Fearless in the Right; Full of Practical 
Information for the Breeder and Amatuer. 

Its Contributors are Experienced Breeders, Nat- 
uralists and Scientists. It gives the best and earli- 
est Show Reports. Is a complete Hand-Book of ref- 
erence for Poultry and Pigeon Fanciers'. It treats 
largely on Natural Science in its most familiar form. 

Subscribers can begin with any Number. 

Free by mail 1'<>r $1.50 a year payable in advance. 

SAMPLE COPIES 15 CENTS. 

Joseph M, Wade, Hartford, Conn, 

THE SOUTHERN POULTRY JOURNAL 

A handsomely Illustrated Monthly, published at 
Louisville, Ky., the first of each month. 

(Devoted Exclusively to (Poultry. 

Each number will be brim full of original and 
valuable matter, and will he found a welcome friend 
and practical guide to the Fancier, Breeder, Farmer 
and Amateur. 

X»r. W. H. MERRY, Editor. 

assisted by some of the leading breeders and fanciers 
in this country, Canada and England. 

Subscription, 81.00 per year, post paid. 

It is the only Poultry paper published in the South. Agents Wanted. 

SAMPLE COPIES 12 CENTS. 

Address all letters to 

©o\itliex*n Poultry .Journal Company. 

P. O. Box 60, Louisville, Ky. 



3taa®« M® Ii&raIilM? 9 



BREEDER OF 



Pedigree Light Brahmas, 

(Felcli Strain,) 

Black Hamburgs, 
Leghorns, 

Plymouth Rocks, 

AND BLACK BREASTED 

BED GAME B1ITI1S. 

Folds always for Sale. 

Eggs and Chicks in Season. 

Send me your address, and I will send you my 
Circular. I have as good stock of the varieties 
named as any man in America, and guarantee 

Entire Satisfaction in all Cases. 
Address, 

JAMES M. LAMBING, 

Parker's Landing, I?a. 



1877. 



v. c® @iha: 



BREEDER OF 



t 



PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 



For 

Eight 

Years I 

have 

made 

this 

breed a 

specialty 




and 
was am- 
ong the 
first to 

recog- 
nize its 
superior 

merit. 



I issue no Circulars, but believe my close care in selecting the Breeding 
Stock, has produced me 

A_ STRAIN, 

unsurpassed in beauty and uniformity of markings, symmetry and excellent 
Laying qualities,— merits which have been recognized at many of the larg- 
est 

WmmMw-w Iiilltttiig, 

For particulars address me at 

NASHUA, N. H. 



Vfce WmmMww WmMmm® 

DEVOTED TO 

Poultry and Pet Stock, 

A 3 Column, 20 Page, Handsomely Printed 

MONTHLY 

Edited by Todd, Bicknell, Williams, and others 
of the Leading Breeders, and brim full of practical 
reading for the Amateur, Fancier and Breeder, and 
the Cheapest of its kind in America. 

Only 'T'Zy Cents a Year. 
Sample Copies KhCents. Poultry Nation Co. 

Elyeia, Ohio. 

I. K. F IE L C H, 

NATICK, - - - MASS. 

AGENT, 

For the following Poultry Journals advertised in 
this work : " 

The "Poultry World," Chromo edition $2.00 ; plain 
11.25. 

The " American Poultry Journal and Record" for 
plate edition 12.00 ; plain $1.25. 

The "Fanciers! Journal" $1.25. The " Southern 
Poultry Journal," $1.00. The 'Poultry Nation' 75 c. 

The Amateur's Manual will be given gratis for 
two new names for either of the first four, or three 
new names for the " Nation," or for two or more of 
the above collectively, on receipt of the subscription 
price. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







